27062021 - Kaduna, Borno, Niger, Benue strruggle over 3 million IDP

PAGE 14—SUNDAY VANGUARD, JUNE 27, 2021
My parents’ resilience
as top judges helped
to shape my life
—Oyetunde, ADB Executive Director
•I qualified as chartered accountant
while still studying law at UNILAG’
By Ebunoluwa Sessou
With his 24 years experience as a multidisciplinary professional
spanning corporate & investment banking, fiscal & macroeconomic
policy, public financial management, accounting, law, civil litigation,
legislative drafting, taxation, youth leadership & sustainable global
development in Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom, Dr. Oyebode
Oyetunde, a lawyer, in this interview, speaks on how he learned the
importance of uprightness, conservativeness and hardworking as tools to
achieving success amidst challenges in life. Excerpts:
•Oyetunde
Early life and experiences
I was born and raised in Jos, Plateau
State. My parents, Hon. Justice M.O.
Oyetunde and Hon. Justice R.G. Oyetunde,
had a successful legal practice which
served clients across Northern Nigeria.
Later, my father and mother were
appointed as judges in the Plateau and
Oyo State judiciaries. It was my parents
that set me on the path of law, accounting,
taxation, development economics, fiscal
policy, banking and finance. My father
retired from the Plateau State judiciary
as the most senior judge while my mother
retired as Acting Chief Judge of Oyo State.
She was the first lady jurist to hold that
position in the Oyo history. My parents
were hardworking and upright jurists who,
over their decades of service to Plateau
and Oyo judiciaries respectively,
established incredible reputation and
legacy for my siblings and I to follow.
Following their exceptional example,
all six of their children went on to qualify
as barristers and solicitors of the Supreme
Court of Nigeria. From our parents, we
learned the importance of being upright,
committed, conservative and
hardworking.
There is no success without
challenges. Tell us about it and how
you crushed those challenges
I started out my career as a lawyer; I
also achieved professional accounting
qualifications with the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN)
simultaneously. Qualifying as a chartered
accountant with ICAN was a particularly
challenging endeavour as Nigerian
lawyers are notoriously disinclined to
specializing in quantitative professions,
but for the few that have branched out
from law into finance, it has proved to be
an exceptional competency. My
progression into accounting commenced
during the crisis of June 12, 1993 election.
During the frequent ASUU strikes, and
with the encouragement of my parents, I
progressed with the ICAN professional
exams to qualify as an accounting
technician (between 1994 and 1998) and
chartered accountant (between 2002 and
2011). I learned the wisdom of being a
‘silent achiever’ who quietly keeps on
overcoming challenges till success is
attained. Incidentally, I subsequently
qualified as an Associate, ACTI of the
Chartered Institute of Taxation, CITN, as
taxation has always been a field of great
academic and professional interest to me.
So, it has been more about slow and steady
progress than trying to achieve all my
aspirations in a single sprint.
I have a story to tell about myself and
the story is about the Hare in Aesop’s
Fable: The Tortoise and the Hare. Hare
was a gifted sprinter and started his race
early. But he became overconfident and
complacent, which led to his losing the
race to the Tortoise. I have tried to be more
like the Tortoise: slow and steady.
A good example is qualifying as an
accounting technician and chartered
accountant with ICAN, while studying law
at the University of Lagos. Accordingly,
one had to significantly outperform the
national average to progress to the next
stage.
As an Executive Director for
Nigeria on the Board of African
Development Bank in Abidjan, Cote
D’Ivoire, what experience worked
for you and what were your
outstanding breakthroughs?
I am humbled to be an Executive
Director (Nigeria) on the Board at the
African Development Bank in Abidjan,
Cote D’Ivoire, a bank with a goal to ensure
endurable fiscal advancement and
collective growth in its regional member
countries (RMCs), thereby actively
working towards poverty reduction.
Working at the Presidential Villa also
helped to get me where I am today as ED.
It has been an
intriguing experience
in the over two and a
half decades from my
early career. I worked
closely with the
Ministries of Finance,
Budget and National
Planning, often
liaising closely with
successive Permanent
Secretaries, including
Mrs. Fatima Mede,
Alhaji Mahmoud Isa-
Dutse (more recently,
the Executive Director
for Nigeria on the
Board of the Islamic
Development Bank),
the late Alhaji Haruna
Mohammed, Dr.
Mohammed Dikwa,
mni, Alhaji Aliyu
Ahmed, Alhaji Shehu
Shinkafi and the late
Mr. Babatunde Lawal.
I remain a grateful
beneficiary of the boundless wisdom,
leadership and experience of these
seasoned and exceptional civil servants. I
represented the Office of the Chief of Staff
to Mr. President on various councils and
committees, including the Economic
Management Team, chaired by His
Excellency, the Vice President; National
Economic Council (NEC), also chaired by
the Vice President; and Cash
Management Committee, Drafting
Committee for the Strategic
Implementation Plan for the 2016 Budget,
Technical Committees of the Economic
Recovery & Growth Plan (ERGP), the ERGP
Macroeconomic Modeling Committee &
other Committees chaired by the
Ministers responsible for Finance, Budget
and National Planning.
After the demise
of the former Chief
of Staff, I was
retained by his
I would rather
say my parents
taught me life
and how to
manage
positions
successor, Prof.
Ibrahim Gambari.
Under Prof.
G a m b a r i ’ s
leadership, I
continued to serve
in all my previous
capacities until my
recent appointment
by President
Muhammadu
Buhari as the
Executive Director
for Nigeria on the
Board of the African
Development Bank.
I am grateful to
God for my
experiences which
have all been part of
why I am where I
am today.
I look forward to serving Nigeria further
in my new role by supporting Dr.
Akinwumi Adesina as the first Nigerian
President in the bank’s history and
contributing to the good governance of
the its activities, complexes and
operations as these contribute to the
significant and sustainable development
of our continent, its countries,
communities and citizens.
Would you say your experience in
the private sector paid off too?
Well, I would rather say my parents
taught me life and how to manage
positions. Their resilience as judges helped
to shape my life. Prior to being appointed
as SSA to Mr. President on Finance &
Fiscal Policy, and SA to the Hon. Minister
of Finance, Budget & National Planning
on Fiscal & Macroeconomic Policy, I led
Standard Bank Group’s Structured
Finance franchise in West Africa,
providing structuring support for client
and proprietary transactions in Nigeria,
Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Zambia and other
franchise presence countries.
Prior to joining the Standard Bank
Group, I worked in the Federal Ministry
of Finance, providing technical support
in macroeconomic / fiscal policy, taxation
and other aspects of public financial
management to the Director-General of
the Budget Office and senior Finance
Ministry officials including successive
Ministers of Finance, Permanent
Secretaries and the Accountant-Generals
of the Federation, in various aspects of
the Federal Budget preparation, passage,
monitoring and implementation process.
Earlier in my career as a lawyer, I
advised on numerous projects and
corporate finance, commercial law and
tax matters for oil majors,
telecommunication firms, manufacturing
groups and banks in Nigeria. I have also
worked as a Tax Researcher with the
Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) in
London, United Kingdom on several
technical tax research projects, and I have
published technical papers in local and
international periodicals.