DISCOVER NIGERIA: David Omueya Dafinone: The Patriarch Of The World’s Largest Family Of Accountants

By Nehi Igbinijesu.

On the 12^th of March 1927, David Omueya Dafinone was born in Sapele, Southern Nigeria.  He attended Government School, Benin from 1934 to 1938 and Edo College from 1939 to 1942. He however completed his secondary education at the famous Abeokuta Grammar School where he emerged as the overall best student in Mathematics in the Cambridge School Certificate Examination in West Africa for the year 1945. This achievement won him a Scholarship from the then Lieutenant Governor of Northern Nigeria, L. H. Gobble to study abroad. He then proceeded to the University of Exeter and then, the University of Hull from 1953 to 1956. In 1966, he founded David Dafinone & Co.  which later merged with Crowe Horwath International to become Horwath Dafinone, a foremost audit firm in Nigeria. Dafinone became a Senator in 1979 representing the Bendel South Senatorial District. His political career was however stifled by the return of the army in 1983. Noted for many other achievements, the recognition by the Guinness Book of World Records, of Senator David Dafinone and his children for being the first family in history to produce the largest number of chartered accountants in one family is stands tallest. He is indeed a very rare Nigerian worthy of emulation and eulogy.