Tominiyi Thompson Fagbuyi is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). In this interview, he speaks to SEGUN KASALI about his life experiences.
GROWING up experiences in a polygamous family usually differ. How was yours?
I was born into a polygamous family; my dad had six wives. My mum was a teacher and she rose to become the head teacher. It was challenging because when you look at it from my mum’s perspective being the last wife and I was the first child of my mum. My mum left her first marriage to marry my dad which was for a good reason, to be fair. It was also very challenging because everyone has his or her own opinions. But, my dad did a very good job.
How?
He did a very good job with bringing everybody together. He was a very good man who made sure he looked after all the children. Despite having 23 children, my dad was responsible for the needs of us all. So, the mothers were just doing the extras. Like I said, my mum was a teacher.
Did it help being a teacher’s son?
Initially, being the son of a teacher helped me. I remember when I was in class one back in secondary school, my result was not good at all. So, my mum said she was going to engage my Mathematics teacher because my strength in calculation was not great then. So, the Mathematics teacher at the time was a Ghanaian and he taught me personally and I started improving and I later become the overall best. That helped me and I got a scholarship as well. Ever since then, my mum helped me to put me on the right track.
What informed your choice of study at the university?
I won’t even lie. I did very well in my WAEC examination. Initially, I went to Anglican Grammar School and later, African Cooperative High School. There, I only did the final year. During the final year examination to be honest, I came out with one of the best results; I think I had six distinctions and two credits, which included Mathematics and English. Then, I wanted to study Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Initially, I went to the Federal University of Technology (FUTA) to study Computer Science even though I wanted to go to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife but the cut-off mark was high. Eventually, I moved from FUTA to Ife to continue my studies in Computer Science.
Why the love for Ife University?
It used to be the Oxford of Nigeria and everybody wanted to go to Ife. I had been there to see people and I had always wanted to study there. I knew I could achieve the best out of myself and it was quite interesting because it transformed me. And I think that was what made me graduate with First Class honours.
What did you do differently?
I studied but I balanced it out with socials. For example, I won’t say I did not go for shows, but, all I wanted to do was make sure that I created time for my study and at the same time all the social events. I also knew that I needed to get a First Class and I was so consistent all through. There was a time in Year Three when I had to put myself on track to graduate with a very good grade. So, it worked eventually.
What were the challenges to the goal?
To be honest, I was a very challenging boy right from my family. I leave home often and do other kinds of stuff that children used to do. I did a lot of socials and those were very challenging. There was a time I told my mum that I travelled from Ife to Akwa-Ibom for student unionism, she couldn’t believe it.
What are the lessons from and memories of Ife?
The lesson I learnt from Ife is basically how to be independent. While I was in Ife then, we had a tutorial business for junior classes called LekTom (Lekan and Tomi) and we made money from it. My friend and I always said that we would like to be independent and run our own businesses. I can tell you today that he is running his own business here in Nigeria. Honestly, that was what we got from Ife; how we can work hard.
The negative experience that I took away from Ife was trying all sorts of things such as going out to parties. We used to go to the University of Ibadan with colleagues because I had a friend who had a car back then. At some point, I decided I was not going out anymore.
Why?
We were coming back from a party at the University of Ibadan and some of our colleagues who left before us died in an accident just a town just before Ife. A truck carrying timber and their vehicle had a collision; no one survived the accident. Some of them were people that we knew and we had just left the same party together. That was what stopped me from leaving Ife to party anywhere and I told the guys it was the last time I would ever come out to party with them. The accident sent a message to me that we were just lucky because it could have been us. Besides, I graduated top of my class. Unfortunately, my dad did not live to witness my graduation day. If they told him then that Tomi would graduate with a First Class, he would never believe them because I was so troublesome. My mum and siblings could also not believe it. On my graduation day, my mum was excited. She did not even know I was graduating with a First Class until she got to the hall.
Did the exceptional performance open immediate doors of opportunity?
Despite graduating with a First Class, it was very challenging for me to get a job. Despite doing well in aptitude test, everyone wanted to work in an oil company and all that. Some of the big companies even came during the graduation ceremony but it was very challenging. None of them reached out to me. So, I could not get a job that I would like. I now joined EDP, an organisation that was into accounting and technology. The head of the company was a chartered accountant he told us “You can make the best out of yourself by doing something different.” With a technology background, he charged me to go into something different like accounting, saying when you combine your technology with accounting, the sky would never be the limit. He kept putting us on some of the accounting trainings. That lesson sunk into me but I did not start until I left the organisation and joined Wema Bank. He encouraged me into accounting and I developed an interest and started doing all the modules. I was doing ACCA because I had it at the back of my mind that I wanted to travel abroad. I started from scratch. No exemption.
Any regret?
I hold no regret. To be honest, that was one of the best decisions I have ever taken because I don’t write codes but I do accounting.
How did you meet your wife?
While in Diamond Bank, she came to look for job having finished from the University of Ibadan. She brought her CV. Before that and while she was doing her national youth service, she met my sister in the petroleum resources sector where she was working at the time. During one of their conversations, she told my sister she wanted to work in a bank and my sister told her to visit the bank to see me. When she came, I told her I could not get her a job in the bank because the two of us could not work in the same bank if we were to get married eventually. You can imagine, and this is someone I had not asked out. So, that was it.
What did she say?
She eventually said, “let me just drop the CV”. We later became friends and in the process, we both found out that the different relationships we were in were not working. And that was how we clicked.
What got you attracted to her?
To be fair, she was incredibly beautiful and there was no doubt about that. I have always said I wanted to marry somebody from a very good home. So, she said she was going home and I know that her dad was a lecturer at the University of Ilorin. She grew up in Ilorin and she said she wanted to go home. I said “let me come with you” but she was worried about her dad. And I remember she had always said she was not going to take anybody home until she made up her mind on the person she wanted. Eventually, I went to her house. When I met her parents, the level of discipline that I saw was unbelievable. Don’t forget that she took me home when she finally made up her mind to be with me. Even though at the time, I had not made up my mind I was going to marry her; I was just keen on seeing her parents. When I eventually got there, I made up my mind that this is the person I would settle down with, considering the values of her parents.
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