Mr. Muyiwa Osho, a retired chartered accountant and partner at Akintola Williams, shares his experience with JULIET BUMAH and ADEOLA BALOGUN
How was growing up?
I grew up on Olushi Street on Lagos Island and in the midst of Muslims. In fact, there was a mosque within the compound and I remember that I could recite some verses in the Quran. We used to do all things together, including fasting. When it was time for Christian festivals, we also got involved. That exposed me a great to real Lagos life on the island, not too far from Isale Eko proper. When it was time for Eyo, at the age of 10, or Egungun, we got involved from Olushi down to Isale Eko. We also followed them to engage in street fights.
Isale Eko is reputed as breeding ground for area boys. Are you saying you got engaged in that?
Of course, all of those things, one needed to get involved in Lagos when one was young; it was called rascality, but it’s part of growing up. I have no regret. My mother was a very strict woman so at the same time, you knew you had to go to school and study hard. At that time, Lagos was more or less divided into two -from Tokunboh down to Isale Eko to the waterside, it was mostly populated by Muslims up to Tinubu. But on the other side of it, we had places mostly populated by Christians like Popo Aguda, Race Course up to Onikan swimming pool. Our own church was in Tinubu. You needed to do all those things to be a proper Lagos boy.
The term ‘area boy’ connotes someone who engages in vices including smoking, drinking. Were you not doing all these?
I had a very strict upbringing. In my early days, I never smoked or drank alcohol. We had people much older than us who were involved in those things. In fact, they sent us to buy all those things for them, including igbo (hemp). We would buy and give to them, but I never smoked any of those things when I was younger. What they call area boy today wasn’t like that in those days. It was a neighbourhood thing in those days; having people of the same age growing together, which is common all over the world. Maybe after the civil war, things changed because in those days, if your parents were not around, the neighbour was there to look after you. A neighbour would scold you for doing wrong before your parents came. When the neighbour reported you to your parents, you were in more trouble and could be sure of serious punishment from your parents, unlike these days. We were involved in activities such as football competitions at the Campos Square and Aroloya area. Most of the boys that played for (Stationery) Stores in those days, like Olori Osodi, Tunde Disu, we were all playing together in Aroloya area. I am not saying that there were no miscreants, but majority of us saw it more as a neighbourhood relationship where we all grew up together.
Which secondary school did you attend?
I went to Mayflower School, Ikenne and I will tell you why. I went for an interview there and I saw bush and trees and students working, building their own dormitory. As a Lagos boy, I found it very fascinating and I just fell in love with the school. I then became a pupil there. I thank God that it turned out to be a very interesting experience. The school made you to be independent. Tai Solarin was a tough man and a good teacher. He was a good principal, very versatile and he never gave room for easy life. I went on to do my A levels at Comprehensive High School, Ayetoro. Ayetoro and Mayflower were two extremes; while life was tough at Mayflower, Ayetoro was like an ‘Aje butter’ school. While you used your hands to cut the grass at Mayflower, it was a lawn mower at Ayetoro; and when I got there, I laughed. But it was also a nice school; they would give you chicken and eggs to eat.
Did you stumble on accountancy or it was a dream?
Mine was not a dream. Right from when I was a kid, I wanted to be an engineer. People called me Muyiwa Engineer because I used to put things together. I even got admitted to do marine engineering with the Nigeria Ports Authority but somehow, it didn’t work out. I lost my father in 1967 and when I finished school, my mother came after my A levels and said, ‘Muyiwa, I want you to be an accountant. Your results are very good and I know you are versatile. I want you to be an accountant like your father’. I loved my mum even though she was tough with me. When she said that, I took it up just like that. I then decided to go to Akintola Williams and Co. where my father worked before he died and I met his boss and some of his friends. I went to see Pa Akintola Williams; then I sneaked in to see his partner, Chief Charles Sankey, who gave me a sheet of paper on which I wrote an application letter. I was interviewed that day and was asked to come and start work immediately.
By that time, you had not trained as an accountant?
No, in those days, there was what is called articleship where you trained under the feet of a master and you would now go through the courses like the ACCA. ICAN was there but it was very new then. For many of us in those days, we were doing ACCA either abroad or at home in colleges or universities or through articleship. I did my articleship at Akintola Williams and was supervised by people like Sankey, Arthur Mbanefo and many of them whom I consider as my fathers in the profession and also in life. They trained many of us and in those days, 60s and 70s, there was hardly an accountant who did not go through either Akintola Williams or Pitt Marwick. Those were the two accounting firms that were genuinely training accountants.
Surprisingly you spent almost 37 years in Akintola Williams, how did you manage that without getting bored?
I trained for four years. When I qualified, I went to Pa Williams and he sat me down to talk to me. He said I had three choices – that I had the option of going into the industry and ending up being a finance director or a managing director. He said I could go into the civil service and probably become an Accountant General or Auditor General ‘because I can see you are a brilliant person. Or you remain in practice at Akintola Williams and end up being a partner’. He said I should go and think and come back. I went back to tell him I wanted to remain at Akintola Williams. It was prestigious to be a partner of the firm then at Broad Street, Marina in those days. Along the line, I went to Kano and as a partner, I headed many divisions and departments. I came back to Lagos and was in charge of practice development and marketing and later on, I was moved out of audit to develop IT consulting. Then later on, I moved into consulting and that gave me the opportunity to broaden my skills.
What do you think of the impression that an accountant can be manipulative if he wants to?
You don’t need to be an accountant to be manipulative. With the kind of training, if you go by the ethics of the profession, you will be completely away from such rubbish. In the process of work, you can make a genuine mistake but if you deliberately conceal information, you are paving your way to jail. You remember when we had the first round of bank failures, especially during the regime of Gen. Sani Abacha? Many accountants went to jail because they followed what their managing directors told them to do without thinking of the repercussion as professionals.
As a member of the management of Akintola Williams during the Cadbury fraud saga, how did the management manage the crisis of integrity then?
An auditor is not a magician and he is not expected to discover fraud especially where there is connivance or a deliberate attempt to deceive people. It is just like someone who goes before a doctor and doesn’t tell the doctor exactly what is wrong with him or her. The doctor will apply something different and at the end of the day, something different happens to you. Do you want to hold the doctor responsible when he is not a magician? In the case of Cadbury, we were embarrassed; there was no doubt about it. I must be honest with you. It shook us because we never expected it. We had to bring Delloite Overseas into the matter to investigate where we made the mistake. You know, it was not too long after the Enron saga where Arthur Anderson was embarrassed and its licence was withdrawn. Delloite people came in with the crack team and we were exonerated. From the professional point of view, we were found to have done what we were supposed to do, but there was no way we could get to the press. By our profession, we are expected to be conservative; we could be accused of a lot of things if we decide to go to press. So, we did not go out and blow our own side but to those who were very close to us, we explained to them. I spoke then because I was in charge of practice development and marketing at that time and I was the COO of Akintola Williams in West Africa and Central Africa. I also attended interviews with my managing partner and also with Emmanuel Ikhazoboh. Segun Odubogun was our managing partner then while Ikhazoboh was a senior partner in charge of audit. The three of us, including some senior partners, were all over the place trying to explain our side of the story.
How was the company affected internationally?
Let me paint the scenario. This is a practice that was started by one man, Pa Akintola Williams, who later invited Chief Charles Sankey as first partner. There were others like that and they had all retired and watching us. Then, we were feeling the heat from everywhere, from our fathers who didn’t want us to mess up what they started in their lifetime and from outside. The story was everywhere and my children who were abroad were calling me to say ‘daddy, what is happening’? It wasn’t an easy thing but we thank God that we were exonerated. As time went on, the Cadbury MD, Bunmi Oni, who is a friend of mine, was equally exonerated. I’m sure, he would have gone through hell during the period but in his lifetime, he was exonerated. That was no mean feat.
You talked about accountants being conservative. Does an accountant have a social life then?
You must have a dual personality to be able to handle a lot of things. The forerunner in the field in Nigeria and indeed in black Africa, Pa Akintola Williams, is a highly sociable man. Chief Sankey too is highly sociable; same as Chief Arthur Mbanefo. But that does not mean that they are not conservative or highly professional. These are the people who trained me. When you first entered my house, you would have felt it was like a disco hall. We used to have parties here and the band would be in my sitting room. We drink and enjoy ourselves because after working, you need to relax. We belong to all the clubs around because you must look for a way of emptying your stress. Otherwise, you get bottled up.
At what point did you meet your wife?
That is an interesting story. We used to live in a house – 144 Ogunlana Drive, Surulere. It was occupied by Segun Odubogun who also got the house from his elder brother who is now a bishop, Ranti Odubogun. I used to stay with Segun when we were studying for our ACCA and eventually, I lived in that house. What happened was this, one of our friends, Dele Odunowo, was getting married and during the bachelor’s eve, I was assigned with the responsibility of picking some girls from the School of Nursing. I ‘packed’ them in the car and I was the one driving. I put on the music. There was one of the girls singing along with the music and I liked the voice. When we got down, everybody was dancing but I didn’t go to meet her. Since I was the one that was going to drop them after the party, I didn’t rush. So after everyone had danced with her, I just grabbed her and I had the last dance with her and when it was time to go, I brought her to the front to sit with me. While she sat by my side, I asked for her name and when I dropped them off, I told her that I was coming for her after the wedding on Sunday and that she would go out with me. That was how we met and we courted for about four years before we got married. It’s been a wonderful marriage and she has been a pillar of support. She was the one that actually raised the children because my working life was extremely busy. I was always on the road while she took care of the children at home. When I worked in Port Harcourt, she was in Lagos but when I worked in Kano, she moved with me. Then, I was in charge of the entire North and I was always going round the region and my life was on the road. I thank God there was no incident. We would fly to Maiduguri and after work, there would be no flight. We would have to travel back by road in the night and by 8am the following day, I would be in a board meeting. So there was no time for the children but I thank my wife who stood in for me.
How did you propose to her?
In those days, there was nothing like proposing as such. As fate would have it, when she took me to her parents, it happened that her mother and my father had worked together in CMS. Her mother was a very pretty woman and my father also was very handsome and whenever boys tried to harass her, my father was the one always protecting her. When I went to their house and I introduced myself, the old woman looked me in the face and said ‘you must be Moses son’, I was shocked how she knew. That was how we clicked. I used to tease my wife that my father was supposed to have married her mother.
Does it mean that after your A Levels, you didn’t go to any higher institution?
No, because we didn’t need to at that time. The exams we were doing in those days were in five parts and when you did one and two which was called intermediate. It was equivalent to a first degree and this was what you could do in one year. So, one year after, I was as good as a graduate.
You lost your father at a very young age, how were you able to make it?
I will give you the tribute we wrote for our late mother; that captured exactly what she did in our lives. We were all in school when my father died and we were living in Jalupon (Surulere, Lagos), a very nice neighbourhood. The house was on mortgage and after he died, we had to move because there was no money to service the mortgage. We moved to Ishaga area where we lived in a ‘face me and face you’ house. My father’s death made many of us to be matured overnight. My mother was a very disciplined woman and she was the one that raised all of us. She did not remarry at all for the next 46 years before she died recently.
In retirement, what do you do?
My wife, even though is a nurse by profession, only worked for 10 years before she stopped and went into business. She was managing fish farms before I retired and during one of her baby sitting trips to our children, I stood in for her and I have since then joined her. I am also involved in some charitable works and church work. Apart from rearing fish, we are involved in importing fish feeds. I am also into real estate.