‘Monotonous assignments made me to leave banking hall for classroom’

Professor (Mrs) Olubunmi Florence Oseneme of Accounting Department, University of Ilorin and chairman, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, (ICAN) Ogbomoso and District in this interview by Soji Ajibola, gives reasons why she left a lucrative banking job for the classroom among other issues.

What motivated you to study accounting?

My initial ambition as a child was to read medicine but I couldn’t make the cut-off marks, that was why I opted for accounting. I just wanted to be a professional.

 

Why did you abandon the banking hall for the classroom?

As an undergraduate student then, if anybody told me then that I would be a lecturer, I would have said no. However, one thing that is certain is that I have passion for teaching. As a student, I used to take my course mates through some courses whenever they were having difficulties. This assisted me a lot as it made me to read less. I was always eager to assist, knowing fully well that repetition aids learning. When there was an opportunity at the Department of Accounting, University of Ilorin, my mentor, the then Head of Department, Professor Akintola. He asked, what are you doing in the banking industry? You are doing a momotonous job there. Come and impart what you know in the lives of others. I just gave it a trial. Here we are today.

 

What are the challenges you faced in the banking industry that made you to leave?

When I was in the banking industry, I wanted a situation that I would be moving from one unit to the other. When I was there, I only worked in one unit that is internal control unit. When you are in the Internal unit, you are the eyes of the management.  As an Internal controller, I report what I see to the management. This can affect your relationship with your colleagues if you don’t know how to manage the people very well but thank God I read Accounting. We were taught the principle of how to manage, plan, control and coordinate. I didn’t really have problem. I was able to manage that situation. Iwas tired of the monotonous nature of what I was doing. I was tired of what I was doing.  I really wanted to have a taste of what is happening in the other units in the bank but I was limited. I was only in one unit. I wanted to taste Operation and marketing. Even though I see on paper still, I wanted a practical experience. When that opportunity came for me to move I grabbed it. I did not leave the banking sector because of pressure. If you want to talk about pressure, there is also pressure in the academics.

 

Can you shed light on this?

If you want to talk about pressure, there is also pressure in the academics but most people don’t know. One thing is that in academics, you can work 18, 19 hours and people will not know. When you are not teaching, you are doing some other community development works. The only thing that people see is that when you go to the class. You can be on your laptop looking for the information. You can go out to get data or information. You may be searching for information from company to company. We also have pressure in the academics but it is not open to the most people. In academics, people feel that you can manage your time or you teach for only two hours in a day and the remaining twenty-two hours is for leisure. For a good lecturer, you may spend twelve hours preparing to go to class because anyhow students bring out question, you should be able to answer it. I have tasted the two and I have realized that to be a good lecturer it takes time commitment and dedication.  The banking of that time for me was kind of monotonous. You do the call over, reconciliation every time but in academics, you must be dynamic.

 

How did you assume the leadership position of ICAN?

Ogbomoso district is a relatively new one because before we used to be Ogbomoso and Oyo District society. I was formerly the General secretary. When we were separated and became a district, I did not see it coming that I would become the Vice-Chairman.  The pioneer chairman is Professor Fasina .  In ICAN, once you become the General Secretary, you will begin to rise from the Secrtary, to the Vice-Chairman and Chairman. In our district, there were some offices that people competed for but in my own case, I was unanimously elected. In Ogbomoso district, we are united as well work like a family.

 

Your vision for the district

I never compete with anybody but with myself. My vision is to have a district society where every other districts can come to ask us how do you do this not because we want to impress but to have environment where anybody who desire to a chartered accountant will be motivated by what he or she sees around us. For instance, we said we want an ICAN secretariat. Why do you want an ICAN secretariat?  We want a secretariat where anybody that desire to be an accountant, all these our young undergraduates even the secondary school leavers, secondary school leavers, can come for resources, mentoring and training. That was  our initial plan to have a secretariat and an examination hall. Along the line, during my investiture by the grace of God, the first person that gave us a land is Onpetu of Ijeruland, Oba Sunday Oyediran. He gave us an acre of land to construct our secretariat. We were thinking that in that examination hall, we are going to have a library, secreatariat and other things that we are projecting. Later, one of our members, a dignitary in the town, Smson Adegoke, he is a fellow of the institute offered us another land. He said why not have your secretariat here and other things in other places because of the closeness to the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. It was a very big donation. Just few weeks ago, we went to see the Olugbon of Ile Igbon and he offered us another acre of land. When you want to have a vision and God sees your heart, he will raise people for you to actualize your vision. The vision we have is to be the number one district.  We have laid the foundation for the three projects. We want to have standard training and entrepreneurship centres in Ogbomosoland. We want accountants to have skills, soft and hard skills. Different harps have been developed to make accounting profession easy. I don’t think there is any Districts society in the Country that has been able to combine the three projects together.

 

What is the estimated cost for the projects?

Initially for the first two projects, Oke Afin in Ogbomoso North and Sunsun in Ogbomoso South, before the inflation that recently hit us, we contacted the quantity surveyor, and they arrived at N250m. For the one at Orile Igbon, it is N200m. We are now looking at N450m baring variation.