Oluwatoyin Madein: Women shouldn’t expect success to be effortlessly handed over

Dr. Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein is the first female Accountant General of the Federation. Her experience in the Federal Civil Service spans over 30 years as an Accountant, Financial Manager and Internal Auditor. She holds a doctorate degree in Management Finance from Walden University, Minnesota, United States. Madein has served in various Ministries including Police Affairs, Commerce and Industry, Works and Housing, Youth and Sports Development. In this interview, she speaks on her life as a civil servant.

What has life been like in the Civil Service?
I joined the service in 1990 and it was just like something to hold on to; I had a brief stay in an audit firm after my Youth Corps service. I was aiming to become a qualified accountant and go through the audit firm; they paid very minimally, I realised that the pay couldn’t see me through so many things, so I saw a better opportunity in the civil service. One thing that is sure in the civil service is job security. I had the opportunity of advancing in my academics and taking many professional courses and trainings including going to so many places both locally and internationally.

What major changes would you say you have experienced in the Civil Service over the years?
The major changes, especially with the career that I pursued in the service is the digitalisation of the financial services. When we joined, it was basically a manual process, but today most of the processes are now digitalised and with this process, it reduces error and it improves on productivity.

As the first female to hold this position since inception, what would you say you did differently to be there, and how possible would it be for another woman to come back here?
Well, being the first female accountant general, I realised that when all the arrangements were made for the process to commence, I was not seeing myself as a woman. I was seeing myself as a competitor in the process, and I realised that I needed to work harder and I needed to be able to prove that I have what it takes. It is a competition; the process involved three stages of different levels of examination and prior to that, the few things I was able to do was improve on my academic and professional qualifications; they all stood out, because by the time they put the profiles of all of us that were competing, none beat my record.

Secondly, in the service, the career path is run in a pool; you are posted to different ministries, departments and agencies to serve. But, when I became Director, I was posted suddenly to the Office of Head of Service, even though so many people were worried, I took it as a divine intervention. Then I didn’t even know the major role of the Office of the Head of Service in the appointment of the Accountant General. So, I was there just doing my work, and had time to also read, study and go for trainings. I used my time to get into an understanding of the series of reforms in the Civil Service which were the key functions of the Office of the Head of Service. As Director, Finance and Accounts in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, I had the opportunity of knowing more about how things were done, unlike my counterparts who were far off. I had first-hand knowledge working with them. So, during the exam, questions on that area felt like a walk over for me. At the time we went in, we were 20 with about four women. By the time we did the first stage, I was the only woman that crossed to the second stage.

So, we went through the second stage and I was still the only woman that proceeded. When we concluded the process, it took four months to release the appointments. Funny enough, when we finished that process of the Accountant General’s appointment, the following month, the appointment of Permanent Secretaries also came up and my state also had a vacancy. I was eligible to participate. I went into that as well, while still waiting for the release of the appointment of the Accountant General. I got to the final stage too and found myself expecting results of two different appointments at the same time. Something kept telling me I was not destined for the Permanent Secretary position. I just had that belief, because the delay went on for a very long time. President Buhari was about ending his tenure, and people thought the appointment couldn’t take place during that regime. They were running up and down but I kept praying, because I didn’t know anything to do, I was just praying for God to manifest himself. Ten days to the end of that regime, the appointment was announced.

You managed a very sensitive office. How have you ensured transparency and accountability?
I know that the whole Nigeria, especially those that are versatile with Civil Service know that the office suffered some image issues with what happened to the previous Accountant General, so expectations were quite high for me as the first female Accountant General and also with that kind of situation, but one thing that I carried along and believe in is obedience to guiding principles and rules. The system has rules of operation and it is that office that even ensures and monitors compliance. When I came in as Accountant General, my focus was on ensuring that the rules were complied with, and also that digital financial system is operational. We have the Open Treasury Portal that publishes transactions as they occur every minute and Nigerians visit the portal regularly, analyse it and bring out issues. It is about transparency of the system.

Then I ensured that we don’t encourage that spirit of god-fatherism, because some of these problems originate from who gets posted where. I have made sure that it was tackled well. People get posted to where we believe you should be able to work. To reduce the tendency of individuals thinking that they can use affiliations to do one thing or the other. Personally, I made sure that my personal interest doesn’t override public interest. That is something I guide jealously. Anywhere and anytime, you ask for any information, you get it, because I run the office in a manner that no information starts and ends at my table. Every part of the office plays their role in whatever decision that I will be taking. When there is any need for you to get any information, you can easily see through any of the departments that handle such. So, the records are there and open for anybody to access. We maintain an open system where information can be obtained at any time, without necessarily going through any long process.

Did your job put you under any undue pressure dealing with money or records?
The pressure may be having to fund expenditures. The appropriation act that spells out the expenditure and the revenue always end with a budget deficit. At the end of the day, the revenue will be lower than the expenditure budget. What that means is that funding that budget will involve either loans or we stop funding the expenditure. But we are in a country where everybody desires an increase in expenditure but nobody wants to take responsibility for an increase in revenue, that leads to having a funding gap. And that funding gap is the source of pressure, because all the areas of the budget need to be executed a 100 percent.

And the revenue budget doesn’t have 100 percent performance, so that is the real area that pressures come from, because the different sectors will lay claim to how their sector must be fully funded in order to deliver on their promise. Managing the fund is the major source of pressure. With good knowledge of public finance management approach, we were able to sort it out, reducing the pressure, knowing the priority of the government and ensuring that those priorities are tackled. The government’s priority first is to ensure that workers are paid their monthly salaries and so we ensure that we do that first, then attend to other needs based on priority and with that the agitation reduces and those that couldn’t have 100 percent will have a part so that we can properly manage the pressure.

In which area would you like to see improvements?
In Public Finance Management, a major area is budgeting. Our budgeting needs to be efficiently done; although for an ambitious economy, you must definitely aim high but our ambitious economy needs to slow down on expenditure and also ensure that we face developmental activities more as a nation. We still have series of developmental issues in the area of energy, infrastructure – if those areas are focused on with appropriate funds, they will definitely bring so much positive results, improving the economy of the nation. Budgeting has to be tackled properly so that it addresses infrastructure deficiency and other areas like education and health that are not producing results. The security situation is also a major challenge. Funding security is also a major challenge on the nation’s economy because of our security challenges. I’m sure that if we have less problems in that area, there will be more money to move into other sectors. Every sector must see that the revenue they are bringing in matches the expectation. We must also continue to work on revenue leakages, because with leakages we cannot get as much as we want as a nation. Addressing these two issues – revenue leakages and budgeting will do Nigeria good.

From your experience, what is your advice to a woman focusing on building her career while managing family life?
As a woman, I thank God that I got exposed to that early in life. In my family, women are expected to also be part of the economy managers of the family. So, we had that background that, no matter how little, you must do something as a woman. If you now have the opportunity of going beyond just being a petty trader or even going into career, it is appropriate to organise yourself. Managing family life and work life is not as easy, hence as a young woman, you have to be very careful with the kind of partner and friends you keep. These days, you see young women they look as if they have too much time because of the kind of company they keep. In my younger days, I didn’t even have friends apart from my husband and my colleagues.

Also, while you cannot really predict much about your partner, but you can do something about yourself. Personally, I took it upon myself that I wouldn’t be one that would depend on my husband. I want to encourage the young women out there to stay focused on what their dreams are. Ensure that you have a good relationship with your husband. Be truthful and transparent. Make sure that you keep away from distractive relationships. Be prudent in how you manage your finances. You don’t need to be involved in anything that doesn’t really add value. Be economical in whatever you do so that you can conserve the resources that the family has for something more valuable. Ensure you develop yourself. These days education doesn’t have an end. You can’t be too knowledgeable and you can’t learn too much. Learn at every opportunity that comes your way.

Learn, relearn and unlearn depending on the peculiarity of your situation so that as a woman you can have all it takes to stand up when there is any competition; as a woman don’t think that because there’s a call for 35 percent affirmative action for women inclusion means that it is given to you just because you are a woman. When it comes to things that matter and men are involved, the same standard is used to measure. Don’t have that mindset that as a woman, things will be handed out to me. If you’re waiting for that opportunity to come, you might wait endlessly. It is better to be prepared and ensure you work harder.