The Banker That Never Was: My Interesting Journey into Oil & Gas Industry

Jarus

Inspired by this tweet by Professor Kingsley Moghalu, who talked about being deliberate about wanting to have a career in the UN since age 13, to the laughter of this friends and schoolmates, I share similar story.

At 10 in 1992, I decided I wanted to be a banker, largely influenced by Dr Femi Adekanye, my distant mentor, a top Lagos banker of the era whose family house in Offa was just next to ours. He was the CEO of Commerce Bank (now defunct).

He was also the President of CIBN and West African Bankers Association at the time. Anytime he came home from Lagos and visited his family house in Offa, the whole neighbourhood stood still, with his convoy of brand new Daewoo Racer and Daewoo Espero cars.

I was also a regular reader of newspapers at that age so I also used to see his face in newspapers. Looking suave in his designer suits. An archetypal banker. And he was also very generous to his family as his extended family were living well.

His mum, Alhaja, actually lived in that his family house adjacent ours and she used to do sara (charity, usually with akara, coconut, masa etc) for children in the neighbourhood every Thursday. Don’t worry, it was a harmless charity, she didn’t use our destiny. I don’t look like someone whose destiny has been used with akara today. So perish that thought coming to your mind. Some of his nephews and nieces were also my friends at the time. In fact, one of them was my first crush. We all grew up in same neighbourhood.

So I made up my mind I wanted to be like this man when I grew up. I added CBN governorship to the dream at some point. I used to tell my friends in SSS 2/3 that I wanted to become CBN governor.

Filling my UME form early 2000, I chose UNILAG Finance still desirous of being a banker. A brother, who’s a UNILAG graduate and a young banker then, advised me to choose a broader economics, which goes beyond Finance. He also advised against UNILAG, which admission he considered too competitive no matter the UME score. Because I used to read profiles of top bankers in newspapers and saw that a good number of them studied economics, I heeded the advice. Dream still on course. Thankfully, economics was my best subject in secondary school.

I had visited Ife campus few months back and so loved the campus. The only reason I didn’t choose it before was because it had no banking/finance course. So changing to economics and not choosing UNILAG as advised, Ife economics became my natural choice. Wrote UME early May 2000.

Few days later, started WAEC. In fact, in the essay I wrote for my WEAC English, I wrote about wanting to be a banker/economist and names like Dr Femi Adekanye and Professor Pat Utomi were mentioned in the essay. By August 2000, UME result was out. 243/400.

By October, WAEC was out. 8 distinctions (A1-B3), with A1 in economics. Needless to say, by April 2001, without stepping into the campus to knock on any lecturer/admission officer’s doors, Ife had given me admission in economics dept. Started 3 Sept 2001. Banker dream continued.

Well, some orientation by Ife MSSN affected my banker dream and by 200L I had dropped the 10 year old ambition. The next dream was oil and gas. Winning Chevron scholarship in 200L opened me to reading about oil and gas career. A lucrative one, I found out. A competitive one, too.

So I knew I needed to be on top of my game, starting from school. I knew first class should give me some leverage – at least invitation for job tests. To God be the glory, graduated with one four years later, in 2006.

A brother (same adviser 6 years ago) shared my CV to several companies and I was getting job test invite left, right and center, including in banks. Writing tests and interviews. By December 2006, two months after graduating and before NYSC, I had two pre-NYSC job offers.

One from a bank, one from an investment firm. Like my dream of 14 years earlier, the first employment letter I got was from a bank. But at that time, I had lost interest in banking career so I didn’t take it. I opted for the investment firm and spent 3 months there before NYSC. I proceeded for the mandatory NYSC in Sokoto state after the three months.

As NYSC in Sokoto came close to ending in early 2008, I began the real permanent job search. Got test invites from UAC, Accenture, PwC, KPMG, Shell, ExxonMobil, Oando and many more. Ignored Accenture and PwC, wrote and passed KPMG test but ignored interview, eyes set on oil and gas.

Shell and Oando were forthcoming, but Oando was moving faster. All stages (test -> interview -> chat with COO) for Oando happened within 2 weeks. I settled for Oando and that the beginning of my dream oil and gas career that is now into its 13th year. Left Oando for another in 2012.

This was the Shell invite for last stage happening around the same time with Oando. I didn’t show up because the date for this final stage was the same day I resumed at Oando. Even though IOC experience could have been something else, still thank God for the route chosen. No regrets at all.

And at some point I have also gotten job test/interview invite from TOTAL Upstream and Chevron. In other words, 4 of the Big 5 IOCs in oil and gas industry have invited me for test/interview at some point. Then add NNPC and DPR to that.

With all post-NYSC career in this industry, no regrets switching dream from banking in 200L. But I will forever be grateful to Dr Femi Adekanye for serving as a distant role model at a time Ade Bendel was the role model of many Nigerian kids.

I wrote this tribute on Dr Adekanye when he died in 2012.