Thread by @DrJoeAbah

@Dstoryteller_1 I started off as a lawyer during my NYSC (Yes, I did serve!😂) in Jos. I served in a private law firm but also taught Criminal Law at the Police College. So, I had two jobs and two flats. I was in money. I even started sending money home for my younger ones then. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 I won my very first case as a lawyer: that of a widow that her late husband’s family wanted to take the tiny piece of land she was farming to feed the kids he left behind. I was so elated when we won. She had no money to give me but she knelt down & prayed for me. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 I was doing a lot of pro bono cases and that was when I started thinking “I won’t make money from this law o.”😂 I wondered how Gani Fawehinmi made money. It took me a long time to realise it wasn’t all cases that he did for free and that he charged handsomely too.#drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 After NYSC, I moved back to our family home in Lagos. I was practicing law as a 21 year-old and a lot of clients discriminated against me on grounds of my age. “This one that hasn’t finished saying Thank You for his mother’s milk. This one na lawyer? Baby lawyer.” #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 My mates with rich parents got places in big law firms. Not being from a connected family, finding a law firm to work in was hard. I was, in effect, an “associate” of two law firms and was working on a pay-as-you-go basis. I also did some “charge-and-bail.” #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 There was a friend that used to give me a lift from FESTAC where we lived then to CMS in Lagos. He has just come back from the USA and was newly married. An SSS car climbed the pavement and killed him. Of course, I sued the SSS. This was under a military regime! #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 Suing the SSS for compensation for his family seemed the sensible thing to do. Doing it under a military regime nko? I told you I was young then.😂 Like many young people now, I was desperate to move abroad then. An opportunity came to do so & I moved to the UK. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 My emigration to the UK was made possible by my childhood friend @jidesalu, who is really my brother from another mother. I registered for my Masters in Business Law part-time, while working any jobs I could find. I bought my first #fullchicken with my first pay.😂#drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 About 6 months later, I met my wife for the first time & proposed 4 hours later. I just knew. She was the one that gave me my first meal with more than one piece of meat. We were married 2 years later. Anyway, my marriage story is another story. This one is career.#drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 The fact that both my parents were public servants, reading Law and handling all those pro bono cases meant I always had an interest in public affairs and fighting for a better system of governance. My first public service job was in the UK with a Local Authority. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 I was engaged to cover someone for 3 months’ maternity leave. The job was to help the Council recover rent from its tenants. The legal training combined with the Naija hunger for success meant I recovered more money in 3 months than the lady did the whole year. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 They couldn’t let me go when the lady came back from maternity leave. I got a permanent job. I then looked at people who had been there for years and thought “I am not retiring here o.” I felt I had a lot more within me. I started applying and attending interviews.#drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 Shortly after, I got my first management job in the Council’s One Stop Shop. From there I basically started changing jobs every 2 years. This made me rise much faster than my peers. Then somebody said I write quite well and will make an excellent consultant. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 So I became an in-house consultant in a local authority in West London. This was a big deal because they only took very bright people. I was the only one there who had not gone to either Oxford or Cambridge. I wrote the Council’s guide on Best Value Procurement. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 Then I saw an advert for a job with the Audit Commission. It paid exactly twice my salary then. I thought “I can do this job with my eyes closed. I go apply. Man no die, man no rotten.” When I told my Madam I got the job, she said “Yes nau. Are they mad before?”😂#drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 That was how my salary doubled overnight. In less than a year of my being there, my boss was made Tony Blair’s Chief Adviser on Reforms. She brought me with her. I had to leave a permanent job with an obscenely-good pension for a 6-month Casual Contract. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 The contract was “At the pleasure of Her Majesty, The Queen, who is constitutionally not obliged to give notice of termination.” My Madam said “Take it. Once you have Number 10 Downing Street on your CV, you’ll never need to look for work again.” I took it. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 Driving reforms at the very heart of the UK government, with a Prime Minister who campaigned and won on a manifesto of reforms, was a rare privilege. Again, I constantly had to explain to people where University of Calabar was, and how I got here.😂 #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 I was in the Senior Civil Service: the top 2% of all UK Civil Servants. The hours were crazy but for the first time, I had money to spare after paying bills. Then my Madam visited Nigeria. Someone who was supposed to bake a wedding cake disappointed the bride. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 My Madam bakes, and does many other things. She stepped in and was paid N350,000 then. She came back and said “Cake that in London they will owe you for 3 months to pay ordinary £100? No o. There’s money in Nigeria. We need to start thinking of moving back.” #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 An opportunity then came to move back to Nigeria to run a DFID programme. I ran various DFID programmes for 10 years. One of those programmes was actually to support BPSR and the development of a National Strategy for Public Service Reforms, among other things. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 That Strategy in 2008 was what first proposed the Treasury Single Account, among other reforms. My last job running DFID programmes was to lead DFID’s largest governance programme in the world, working with the Federal Government and TEN Nigerian states. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 That was when I decided to do a PhD. I had so much practical knowledge but no theoretical backing. So I chose to do the PhD in Governance and Public Policy, rather than Law. Although I re-qualified and became a UK Solicitor, I never practiced Law again. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 One day, I went for a seminar at the Abuja Hilton and the new Head of Service, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji, was there. I firmly but politely challenged him to be different from his predecessors and he asked me to judge him after 3 months. I said “Fair enough!” #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 Then I was on holiday in the USA with my family jejely enjoying my life and I decided to check my emails. Things has gone crazy. “They are looking for you!” Who are they?, I asked. “The President”, they said. Which President?, I asked. “Goodluck Ebele Jonathan!” #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 It turns out they wanted a DG for BPSR and Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji had said “There’s one young man that challenged me at the Hilton. That’s the kind of courage we need. Go and look for him.” That’s how I got into govt. I didn’t know anyone. No godfathers anywhere. #drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan appointed me on the strength of my CV ALONE. I had never met him. I worked with the SGF Pius Anyim for 3 months before he realised I wasn’t from Yobe like Alhaji Goni Aji, but was from Ebonyi like him. The issue just never came up.#drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 So, I did 4 years at BPSR and made it clear that I was unwilling to consider a second term. I got a very nice letter of commendation from the Federal Govt when my tenure finished. I then returned to the private sector. That’s my story! To God be the glory. The End!#drjoeabahstory

@Dstoryteller_1 I mustn’t finish the story without thanking President Muhammadu Buhari who wrote me the glowing letter of commendation and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who always expressed interest and support for my work, even after I left govt. Thank you both. The Final End!! #drjoeabahstory