A plea to save Dausu community

One’s heart bleeds whenever one goes back to memory lane to those horrible old bad days, when one had to trek 12km from Dausu to Umaisha on foot. The pain of it is that the status quo persists even in this 21st century. The suffering has continued to swallow the courage of individuals wishing to […]

One’s heart bleeds whenever one goes back to memory lane to those horrible old bad days, when one had to trek 12km from Dausu to Umaisha on foot. The pain of it is that the status quo persists even in this 21st century. The suffering has continued to swallow the courage of individuals wishing to make a livelihood in Dausu. If not for their aged-parents, even the youths who succeed in jumping out of this agony to cities searching for greener pastures do not want to return. I don’t think that we need a soothsayer to tell us that this community is at the brink of extinction when the aged parents are no longer alive.

Members of the Dausu community, made up predominantly of peasant farmers and fishermen have continued to look helplessly, as poverty continues to swallow their labour, despite being hard working. Even the arrival of democratic governance has not made any difference to their situation.

Dausu is one of the ancient communities in Opanda Kingdom. It is one of the political/administrative ward headquarters in Umaisha District, Toto Local Government Area. Geographically situated about 12km west of Umaisha and 60km south of Toto town, Dausu ward is blessed with arable land, bounded by the River Benue. This suggests why farming and fishing were the major occupation of the community, yet they are still suffering in abject poverty.

While the smallest villages in our neighboring state (Kogi) are celebrating the birth of infrastructural facilities, we are mourning the replicate birth of poverty, which has made the community a shadow of its own self. While we appreciate the efforts of the Kogi State government, from what we can see due to our proximity to them, we are equally lamenting our distance from our own state headquarters, Lafia. If we had an option, we would start considering changing the location of Dausu to face the other way. Destiny being what it is has decided the present location of Dausu; unfortunately for us, the present administration has little or no idea of our predicament.

The reasons for our predicaments is traceable to the inability of our people to sell their hard-earned fishing and farming produce outside the community for commercial returns, year-in year-out. No access road. Indeed, the borehole projects of the immediate past administration for Dausu Ward were not completed due to lack of access road. In the rainy season, this community is usually cut off from the world.

If there is anything that can reverse the trend of suffering of this Community, it is the construction of the 24 km Umaisha – Igwa pati Road via Dausu.

Towards this end, the community has initiated a process towards the realization of this dream. In consultation with the Toto Local Government Authority, the feasibility studies, engineering design and estimates for Umaisha – Dausu road has been produced. To our dear Governor Doma, we make bold to say that charity begins at home, but unfortunately, our own Charity has no road to her home in Dausu. Despite the large number of road development projects spread across the state by Governor Doma, one wonders if there still exists a community or ward like Dausu which has not benefitted from the governor’s projects on road development.

We are not only registering our existence as a community to our governor, but also appealing to his sense of good governance; cap in hand, to save our community from its plight. We are requesting him to help us kick-start the project by shouldering the construction of the bridges and culverts as reflected in the design. By this, we would have the moral courage to convince our intended sponsors to start the road construction from where the state government stops.

If this is accomplished, the fortune of Dausu community and indeed its district headquarters, Umaisha, Toto in particular, and Nasarawa State in general, would be revived. Toto via Umaisha would indeed be transformed to a commercial hub of the state.

Engr. Ibrahim wrote from Nassarawa [email protected]