By Fred Ezeh
Daniel Davou is a resident of Jikwoyi area of Abuja. He has distinguished himself as a nationalist who is committed to the cause of a better society, a father of three and indigene of Plateau State.
For almost two decades, Davou had put to use, his youthful energy, and perhaps, his personal resources to promote the course of free movement of commuters within Nyanya, Karu, Jikwoyi and Kurudu. Findings confirmed that he had been consistent and faithful in his passion even without a “pat on the back”.
Davou, by all description, has taken over the job of either the Abuja Municipal Council Area (AMAC) or the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). Ideally, AMAC or FCTA ought to have been up and doing in fixing FCT roads, particularly those in the satellite towns with high concentration of people and business activities.
Roads in Abuja, particularly in satellite towns, undoubtedly, receive less attention from government. This has resulted in deep potholes that are conspicuous in every part of the city except for few that are used by the elites.
Davou is known by virtually all the motorists that ply the road because he interact and acknowledge cheers from them on daily basis in the course of his work particularly at the bad portions of the road.
Abuja Metro caught up with Davou and had a lengthy conversation with him. In course of the interaction, he said that service to humanity was what drives his passion for such community service.
“I am very much aware that what I am doing ought to be the job of the government, but it is obvious that they are not forthcoming with the solutions. So, I took it upon myself to make the roads motorable. I have done this job for also 20 years now.
“It may interest you to know that I started this road repair when AYA-Nyanya-Mararaba road was one lane. Then, there was no FCT administration presence in this part of Abuja. But I moved to internal roads within these locations where government attention couldn’t reach, but that after the road was built
“I attach strong importance to free movement and that forced me to engage my little resources to achieve this dream. Because I was much younger and stronger then, I had the strength to use wheel barrow to pack laterite from one location to another for the job.
“I acquired Audi 80 few years later which further helped me significantly in the job. People were happy with what I was doing and they appreciate me, even when they were under no obligation to contribute, financially or otherwise, because it was my passion to do community work.
“At a point, I became discouraged and almost quit, but that was when my wife was killed by armed robbers who had invaded my house one fateful day in 2005. I left my house early morning on the fateful for my routine road repair but received a call few hours later that my wife was shut by armed robbers,” he said.
He however appealed to government to sincerely provide the basic services for people in order to make life more liveable for the people.
Davou told Abuja Metro that he has acquired several work tools and basic experiences required to fix bad portions of road, stressing that more would be achieved if financial and logistics support are provided by good spirited Nigerians.