Diran Famakinwa, a former Chief Financial Officer of St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, is the Senior Partner of Famaks Associates. SEGUN KASALI speaks with him about his life journey.
What were the circumstances of your birth?
I have two siblings that are older than I. It appeared that there was a change when I was born. For my father, it was in terms of his educational fortunes and my mother also had something similar. That is where the name ‘Oladiran’ came from. Something like “this guy created a generation of wealth”. I have an older brother who is 10 months older than me. We were so competitive to the extent that the competition spurred us to greater heights. He is a lawyer and I am a chartered accountant.
What indelible experience did you have as a lad?
I was the first in my house to be sent to a boarding house. I had my first five years in England and then I came to Nigeria and was enrolled in a private school. So, when I got to that school, I was exposed to a different world where I had to survive by myself. I cried during the first two or three days because I did not know how to sweep and we had to do manual labour such as cutting of grass and I also had to wash my clothes; I cried as if they had sent me somewhere to punish me. I think I went in September 1976. By December 1976 when I came home, my father looked at me and said, “This boy has changed.” I was transformed within three months from being a child who was dependent on parents for survival to a young boy that grew into a man and that set me on a path of independence because I had to find my way into the bigger boys group in my class.
You fought your way through?
Yes. Basically, you have to wake up very early in boarding house. You have seniors that send you to go and fetch water for them. If you come late, you would be beaten. If you don’t come to the dining room at the right time, you don’t get your food. I went to Methodist High School in Ibadan, which was basically in a jungle then, but not anymore. We had to go into the jungle to kill bush rats and things like that. So, there was that adventure feeling of it but also the other part because until then, I had never used a cutlass. So, I had to learn how to use a cutlass to cut grass. There was this massive transformative experience from a sheltered guy to a guy that had to survive by himself. That was exactly the training ground that had supported me. I acquired skills; I knew how to wash my clothes and plates. To some extent, I was not a crying baby to him (my father) because I could stand on the streets and bully other people. So, I think he had some inner satisfaction that the reason he sent me out had been, to some extent, fulfilled.
Who was the disciplinarian between your parents?
Both of them were disciplinarians, but my father adjusted the manner of instilling discipline as I grew older whereas my mother thought he could slap and beat me at 18. That was the kind of differences between them. But, they were both loving in their own way. My father cared so much about our education. I think the only way I got to deceive my father is in the area of education. If I were to tell him I want to buy a book, he will not think twice. As a growing child, you would deceive him that you need to buy a book. I think he knew but he made sure we never had an excuse lack of educational provision as excuse for any failure. We owe him that and he gave us everything we needed.
Will you say you took most of his traits?
Well, I would say I took his gentleness. He was always thinking and focused. He interested me in the commercial side of life. I was basically his understudy. When I went to do MBA, they were teaching virtually those skills I had already gained while with my father running his business. He was a family man. So, he cared for all his own siblings. He supported them to grow their own education. So, those were the kind of values I took from him. Meanwhile, my mother was far more cosmopolitan. She was born and bred in Lagos; she was socially aware. The social skills such as knowing how to dress, being fashionable were those I caught up from my mother.
One may think skills from your dad made you study accounting…
Accounting came by an accident. During my secondary school education, I was a science student and I did quite well. Unfortunately, there were exam question leakages in my final year and some of us became victims. It was not that we were not brilliant but the results were cancelled. So, people in my set graduated with results that were basically not going to take us anywhere. I was dejected and a few of my colleagues were already in prelim in some universities. So, my father picked up the result and spoke to some people in Lagos State College of Science and Technology and they said I could do accounting. That was how I ended up studying accounting.
Any regret over that?
Not at all. I have come to love it. If I had done what I wanted to do in the sciences, I would have hated it. Let me tell you how I survived despite coming from a science background. I turned up in class one day and there was a lecturer, Chief Ebun Johnson, who is now late. He was a former commissioner for finance in Lagos State. He went to the chalkboard and wrote “My name is Chief Ebun Johnson, FCA, FCCA.” While standing there, he said that is what it is all about. And he started with the basics of accounting i.e. double entry. He asked those who knew it to raise their hands and more than 68 percent did. But I did not know it because I did not do accounting in secondary school. He then asked if we could move on and everyone said yes. He called the next topic Trial Balance and everyone said they knew it. By the end of that class, they have basically done three topics in the syllabus and I did not know anything of the three. So, I went home and told my father “I can’t do this because virtually everyone was way ahead of me”. So, he said you just have to put your head down and study. So, I sat down and started self-study. My peers were way ahead of me. The end of the story was that I came second at the end of the semester. Today, I have the same accolades of FCA, FCCA and an additional MBA nine years later in the United Kingdom. I forgot to tell you that my first job was a cleaner at McDonalds on Oxford Street, London after I told my dad that I was returning to the United Kingdom since I am British. Interestingly, I got sacked after three days at that first job.
What happened?
I was doing my cleaning in the toilet when a young Chinese came in and thought I did not clean the whole thing well. He kicked the dirty bucket I was using to clean and the whole water spilled on the floor. He then told me clean it again. Coming from Nigeria, I was so enraged because I was more educated and older than him. So, I thought he disrespected me and I had to hold him by the collar and threw him against the wall. People who rushed in said I assaulted the guy. I was sacked afterwards and that was the last time I ever did such a thing. I learnt my lesson. I went from being a cleaner to a security man to a mini-cab driver, while I was studying. In order to garner experience, my first formal job was with my church. I told them to employ me to keep their financial records on a pro bono basis. I did that for about six months and was able to get reference for my first job with a local authority in the United Kingdom. From there, I never looked back.
How did you meet your better half?
I met my wife at the polytechnic in Lagos. She was a year my junior. She lived in FESTAC like I did. I met her at the corridor in 1982 by accident. My wife, Temitope, is quite a brilliant woman. She is also a chartered accountant. So, what really attracted me in her was her cerebral knowledge. She was quite opinionated, assertive and can hold conversations.
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