…There is wealth to be made in Nigeria.
Exclusive Interview With Chief Daniel Eke Onwa 1 of Igbere (Photos)
IGBERETV had an exclusive interview with Chief Daniel Eke Onwa 1 of Igbere, a successful Abia-State-born Chartered Accountant based in America.
In this interview with Prince and Orji of IGBERETV, Chief Daniel Eke gave solutions to unemployment and youth unrest in Nigeria.
Below is the interview.
Prince: Good morning Sir. My name is Prince from IGBERETV and I am here with my colleague, Orji. Orji is in charge of OUKflix and also a part of MukMediaTeam. We want to thank you for this opportunity. It has been a dream come true. It has been long we have been trying to see if we can have an audience with you, and finally we are here with you. We are so grateful. Sir, may we know you?
Chief Daniel: Well, first of all, the pleasure is mine. I am very happy. I have been hearing about you guys, IGBERETV and what you all have been doing, and how you go places. I really appreciate that we have that quality of media in our village. I appreciate that, and I thank you guys.
My name is Chief Daniel Eke, I am a chartered accountant, fellow chartered accountant in Nigeria and am also a chartered accountant in America, they call it CPA “Certified Public Accountant” in America. I have been running my own accounting firm for the past 25 years in Washington DC.
Prince: Wow! That’s wonderful. Sir, we would want you to briefly tell us how you started, the life of Onwa 1 of Igbere, your little beginning till where you are today.
Chief Daniel: Yeah, in the early 70s of course, we only had very few universities in this country, Nigeria. So, of course we all strive to go to Nsukka, UNILAG, and other universities. But out of maybe two hundred thousand candidates, they only have space for maybe twenty thousand candidates. That created a lot of surplus of people who want to pursue higher learning but had nowhere to go. But today, that we have proliferation of schools. That time, there were just very few. So, even though I had grade one and I scored very high, I could not get any admission.
I was admitted to study Economics at University of Calabar at that time. But I wanted to be a chartered accountant. There wasn’t any option. So, my parents decided to send me to America, and that’s how I started.
I went to America and studied accountancy, and worked through the ranks. I worked for the government, then for a chartered accounting firm. I worked all the way to senior manager before I ventured out to starting my own and that was in 1992.
Prince: Ok Sir, it has been a lovely journey, even though it wasn’t as easy as a lot of people think it was.
Sir, having been privileged to live in Nigeria, Africa and the Western world, we would want to know the economic difference here in Africa (Nigeria) and western world because most of our youths dream to go over there. So, we would want you to lead us into the difference between what we have here and over there. Why are people killing themselves to move over to Western world?
Chief Daniel: You know, people always think that the grass is always greener on the other side. What happens is that America or the Western world has an economy that works. You go to work, you do your job, work hard, get paid, you move on. That’s the single most important attraction that makes people want to go over there. In Nigeria, the same thing can apply. It’s just that the process has been bastardized to the point that you may go to work, work hard but at the end of the month you don’t get paid. How are you supposed to survive? You have three children to feed, three mouths to feed. That leads to corruption and all kinds of things that are not necessary.
But there are so much opportunities in the Nigerian economy because where there is need, there is wealth to be made and we will get into that. I will just tell you and show you the difference why. It’s a mind set and very soon, as the young kids start realizing that things have changed, that they need to concentrate and develop their own economy to the standard they want, they won’t keep on thinking the grass is greener. Sometimes, disillusioned people get to the point of suicide when they travel abroad.
Prince: Ok Sir, before we go deeper into that, we have been having youths unrest. The youths are not happy. Let us use the last EndSARS protest as a case study. You know what it degenerated into. There were a lot of vices that came with the EndSARS protest. So, we would want to know what you think about it, the impact it had in our economy and the way forward.
Chief Daniel: You know, I feel very very bad and I feel disappointed because our politicians take the masses for granted. The people that are in power, the people that supposed to rule us and help us and make sure things work, take the masses for granted. The masses have the power in democracy. I personally have had experience with the SARS. It had to do with my son. We were going to Portharcourt airport. My son is an American. You know this young young boys Yuppie (laughs).o kwa ihe unu na akpo ya yuppie (speaks Igbo). He has his own nice pants (Trouser). He had another pant that he bought in America that he likes to wear, but he was not wearing it. The pant has a little colour like a military wear but is not. It is just a fashion for them. So, they stopped us and they started looking. My wife was there. My wife is also an American. My wife was wondering why they were ransacking everything? I said to the officers, ‘what’s up?’ One of the officer said, ‘we need to search your people. I said ‘ok, do your job’. So, when he got to the pant, he said, ‘this is not allowed’. My son asked, ‘why?This is my pant I bought in America. I wear it. Why is it not allowed?’ They said ‘no no no, he is a terrorist’. Before you know it, it escalated. As a Nigerian, I just called out one of them and gave them ten thousand Naira and we moved on. That was not called for. It was not called for because if any harm had come to my son, believe you me, there will be an international incidence, not from me but from America. Of course, it will go viral. That’s not what we want, and that kind of impunity is what led to this unrest because the youths got tired of been treated like that and we must as a country hold the people that we entrust our security accountable. We must as a country hold them accountable. They must know how to behave, even if we have to retrain them. That’s why I am very happy that the youths revolted and protested, and that made politicians realize that the masses have power and they can stop the politicians. That’s the way I feel.
Prince: Ok Sir, before we move to the next question, I wanna ask something about the EndSARS protest. A lot of persons are of the opinion that the youths did the wrong thing. What do you think? Do you think that the step the youths took was wrong?
Chief Daniel: Look, protest is enshrined in the Constitution. Protesting against inhumane treatment from SARS is a good thing. Violence and destruction of properties is not acceptable. You don’t have the right to vandalize people’s properties. It is also wrong for the government or security officers to forcefully try to stop protesters from protesting. You don’t, you talk to them, you try to understand why they are upset. That’s how you handle those things. So, protest is a good thing because it jiggles the government to realize that people are not happy. But violence, destruction, vandalism is not good.
Prince: Ok Sir, still on the youths because they are the life wire of the society, the youths are the future of every nation. An average young person, even an undergraduate feels and wants to ride an exotic car, build a mansion like yours. When we look at you people drive with your convoy, we are so impressed. A lot of them, even undergraduates want to make a lot of money. I want to ask, do you think this is a good orientation?
Chief Daniel: (sighs) I will say our value system has degenerated. When I was growing up, what we aspire is to go to school, get degree, get a good job and work hard and move on. That’s the value system. You work hard, you get a job, you work hard you move up, and then the money comes. Take for instance, you may look at me and say ‘yes Daniel is successful, he has a nice house, he drives with convoy, he has police and all that. Yes, fine. But I have been working for the past 35 years. I went to school, I have BSc degree, I have masters degree. I have CPA. I am a chartered accountant. I worked for the government for few years, I worked for the private company for 7 years and then I started my own and I work and I keep working hard and success comes afterwards but what a lot of people see is the glamour. They don’t see the hard work that comes beneath. Our value system has to change and youth must know that they have to work hard.
Then, the next question you asked me. When you don’t have a job, how do you work hard, you want me to get into that? Ok, jobs don’t just come from the air. First of all, things are co-ordinated, meaning graduates are coming out from school, they don’t have any jobs, because there are no jobs. Where are the jobs? We don’t have companies. I was talking to a youth, he did mechanical engineering and he was working for me and he said ‘Oga am looking for job’ and all that, I said ‘come on come here. I asked ‘mechanical engineering?’ What does it mean?’ I said, ‘Mechanic’. I said to him, ‘so you want to go wear suits and stay in the office but you are a mechanic. I said to him, ‘find a mechanical shop, decide which car you want to fix. Do you want to fix Japanese car? Do you want to fix Mercedes, with your knowledge, you should be better than other mechanics that roll on the floor to fix cars. That’s the way you should be thinking, and when you do that, what do you think will happen? You will need 2 or 3 people that will help you in doing that. You have just created 3 jobs and if God blesses you and you start doing well, you will have even other people that will be doing things and you become a job creator.’ That’s the mindset.
I give another example, somebody else told me he studied Agriculture, he said ‘Oga no job oo’. I said, ‘you guys, what’s wrong with you? You have fishery, you have chicken, you have all kinds of things that don’t take much.’ As we speak now, I have told about four of them, ‘I will be your partner, I will give you the money, you start it, you manage it, you know it will be 50/50, you know…you give me my returns and you make your money. But let’s say the person goes into fishery, just have a little pond, have a plot of land and dig a hole and fish. Don’t you think he will make enough money and feed his family? Just doing that but they don’t think like that. They think about glamour. In America, farming is one of the most lucrative business. Most millionaires we have are farmers. So, why do we degrade something that is so lucrative?. People don’t look at it. There are just so many things. I also challenged another person. I say, why is it that most people that went to school in America, when they come back, they don’t go looking for job? Why is it? There must be something. It is a mindset, because we were trained to create opportunities. Recently, my son came here, he was just looking on the gabbages on the road, plastics and all that, he said, ‘Dad, this is a golden opportunity.’ I said ‘what?’ He said, ‘don’t you think if you have a recycling plant, you’ll make a killing? All these things. You just recycle them.’ I said, ‘my son, think about that, because Africa is a golden opportunity.’ You solve problems, you make money. So that’s the mindset we have to inculcate in our youths.
We need to help them too by setting up skill acquisition centers. When you come out from school, usually the skill you learned in college or university may not prepare you to do something very meaningful. Skill acquisition centers that people learn to fix air conditioners, fix tiles, and all that. I am telling you, in America, they are the millionaires. If you know how to do any of these things, you make a killing, you know how to do that, you know how to fix fan, you know how to do screeding or do painting. These are acquired skills. They can be set up, nicely set up and co-ordinated in such a way it becomes meaningful to the economy and create jobs.
Prince; Ok Sir, late 2019 and basically 2020 the world was confronted with the deadly pandemic that shocked the world. We want you to express your thought about the economic effect it had on us, more especially, in Nigeria. The youths will also want you to crown it all with the post COVID-19 economy. Your advice to the youths as an experienced accountant.
Chief Daniel: 2019 leading into 2020 was terrible for everybody. Of course, you guys see what is happening in America. It’s just terrible. I mean, I woke up in March around March 15th, I have everybody, all of my employees at work. We do a lot of work for the government and other places. We were all deployed, and got an email that everybody should pack up that we were shutting down. Can you imagine the impact? It hit us hard. I can also understand how it hit everybody. But every adversity creates opportunity. You see, a lot of companies I have known now doing e-commerce, doing all kinds of things, and that have opened my eyes especially in Nigeria. The world is a global village now. If you do suits like this nice suit you are wearing, you don’t need to sell it only in Igbere. You just need to take a picture put it on Facebook, the world is your reach now. This thing has opened up the world. You don’t even need to drive to Umuahia to do a conference. You stay in your house and use the internet and do the conference and it looks like you all are there, and you achieve the same thing. There are opportunities. Opportunities that force people to begin to think outside the box for survival.
Restaurants in America began to do outdoor dining. In my company, we began to implement online activities more, very robust to survive in order not to shut down. People that are successful look at every adversity as an opportunity and that is what I expect we Nigerians to do.
Prince: Sir let’s go back to your life because you are an inspiration to our young people. What is the most defining risk you have ever taken, and what happens to be the outcome of such risk?
Chief Daniel; for me in terms of work, job, the most defining risk was when I as a senior manager, I had about 120 chartered accountants under me. You see, I was the highest and I decided to leave and start my company with zero and nothing, but I know that I will be okay. Because once you have a skill, you cannot starve. If you know how to paint, if you know how to fix floors, how can you starve? Unless you are lazy, you may not be rich. But you cannot starve. My skill was accounting. I knew I can do taxes. I can do accounting for people. Forget all those big jobs with government. Of course, I knew I could do all those little things and survive and I did and survived. But it wasn’t at the level I was playing before. But that level took some time. It took me up to 3 to 4 years to employ my co-workers that used to be at my level at that time. So, that’s the risk that you could succeed or fail. It takes determination and vision to say I have the confidence based on my skills that in the minimum I will not starve but at the maximum I will do better, do better than I did better, and that’s the confidence that creates opportunity to create jobs.
Prince: let’s balance this interview by bringing it back to our home Igbere which is our pride and we are proud of our home town. As a father, advice our young girls that we see with unwanted pregnancy and our young boys that does not have meaningful things doing.
Chief Daniel: it is disheartening to see the careers of our young girls quashed as a result of pregnancy. I advise our young girls and boys not to engage in the act if they are not ready. But if it has happened, what next, take responsibility of the child for them not to suffer, and as a government, let’s help them with available infrastructure like equipped skill acquisition centers to enable them succeed.
Prince: As part of our wrapping up of this special interview, Sir please say your new year wish to our leaders, viewers, listeners and readers, your prayers and your advice to the young people generally.
Chief Daniel: We always pray that the new year will be better than the last year. That is my wish too. I pray for us to survive this pandemic. I am very happy about the coming out of the vaccine and I will take it once I get back, not minding what people are saying about the vaccine to discourage people to take it.
My advice to Nigeria is to invest more in attracting foreign investments. This is very important to boost our economy. Foreign investment is what is holding the South East, because they don’t have the industries that Lagos has but they are still vibrant. The Nigerian government should make it easy for those in diaspora to come into Nigeria, because foreign investment is the oil that wheels the economy. Tourism is the most thing that generates money for other countries. We have the population and sites. Ease of visiting Nigeria should be made easy to countries that we do business with and restrict it other countries that will want to cause problem.
Prince: That’s great and we have learnt a lot. Thank you sir for this opportunity. It means a lot to us, and I hope that next time, if we come knocking, the door will be open for us.
Chief Daniel: I thank you guys and I pray for more strength to excel in your media career. And with patience and persistence you guys will go places. Thank you.
