‘What Dafinone did to make all his children chartered accountants’
Ede Omueya Dafinone
His manner of interaction even with his members of staff exuded simplicity. None had to fret over his presence, and that alone reshaped my impression of this chartered accountant, politician and businessman whose father is the famous Deltan second republic senator, Senator David Dafinone. The second son in the Dafinone dynasty of chartered accountants, Chief Ede Omueya Dafinone is a partner at Horwath Dafinone, a chartered accounting firm in Lagos. One stupendous aspect of this man’s life is his perception of politics. In 2007, Ede contested under the umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party-PDP-for the Senate seat in Delta Central but lost in the primaries.
In a dispensation where cupidity has become the main reason people aspire for political seats, though he lost, he chose to still serve his people as promised, but at his own expense. Using the Senator David Dafinone Foundation as a platform for this service, he has since then continued to execute human development programmes in Delta State. Enjoy our chat!
Why did every one of you take after your father’s profession?
It’s a long story, but actually, we were not persuaded to read accounting. I think the best recommendation for a child is to see his parents do well in a profession. Fate had it that none of us had the ambition to do anything else, and whenever we told dad about our desire to study accounting, he would say: “Okay, let us
try that….Accounting is a fairly good profession…”.
You have the opportunity of building on your father’s foundation, so, I doubt if you ever have to struggle hard?
Life does not give anybody free lunches. Even children born into rich homes still have to study and work hard, even harder. Otherwise, they fail and quickly lose family fortune when it is put in their hands! It is hard to make money, but I tell you, it is harder to keep or grow it. After my university education in London, I worked for four years as a trainee chartered accountant and then a qualified chartered accountant before returning to Nigeria. I’ve, over the years, started a lot of businesses that I have had to put in hours, both day and night, to ensure they work out. Also, I spend only about 10% of my time as an accountant; the other 90% varies from politics to insurance, property, oil, farming and export business. These businesses are the ones that exist presently; not the diverse ventures that have failed in the past. So, this is to tell to you that life does not give free lunches; one must work hard for it. Of course people will always look at others from afar and make their own judgement, but that’s wrong. I agree that some people had it really easy in life, but, believe me, they are few.
And do you consider yourself one of them?
I don’t think so. Easy would have been getting government to give me one nice oil bloc and collecting some dollars without putting in so much effort. Overnight you’ve bought a private jet and you’re building one mansion in South Africa (laughs). Easy is actually a relative term.
What was it like to grow up as the son of a famous senator like your dad?
My parents were strict with all of us as we grew up; we were not spoilt. When we were teenagers and also in our early twenties, we would look at our friends and question why our parents wouldn’t buy us cars like their parents were doing. We thought we were unlucky! Even my oldest brother was refused a motorbike when he asked for it around age 19 or thereabouts. We were simply told to ‘go read our books!’ As much as we could have been, we were not affected by senator’s position as a national statesman.
Has that shaped you in any way?
Of course! Now, my siblings and I find it difficult to want to look at what our friends or neighbours have. We’ve grown to understand that we can look but not want to own every object of our admiration. Life isn’t all about material things; spiritual things and emotional well-being are very important. People imagine that we must be pompous or proud or maybe arrogant, but they are overwhelmed when they find that I myself is as simple as anything. You see, fulfilment and happiness do not emanate from the size of one’s bank account or number of gold. Real happiness actually derives from very simple things like one’s child doing well at school, graduating with a first class, your wife giving you your favourite food after a hard day at work, etc.
You wore an unpopular look to political defeat; the typical Nigerian politician would have felt badly wounded. Rather, you went onto fulfilling your promises…
A politician, who does not feel a need to set up an alternative programme because he didn’t get his ticket, was never going to work for his people! For me, anybody who is truly a politician should be able to serve his people, whether elected or not. I noticed my campaign team had a group of faithful and loyal women from Sapele and, because I had promised them empowerment once elected, I felt encouraged to fulfil my promise even though I wasn’t going to the Senate since they stood by me under rain and sun.
I started the scheme with micro-credit, dividing it based on the wards within Sapele. The businesses of these women were however studied to be sure they would use the loans properly and have a multiplier effect. We had gone on with that programme for about six months when they came back to say that some of them needed to learn to read and write. We therefore added an adult literacy class. Again, because the micro-credit was designed strictly for women with already existing businesses, other women who had neither businesses nor skills came to appeal that a skill acquisition programme be designed for them. That was how we went into skill acquisition, distributing hair dryers, sewing machines and cookers upon the women’s graduation. We’ve also introduced a programme for men too(welding, aluminium, etc) into the scheme, and we’re progressing into different local governments like Ethiope West and all.
