A football tournament geared toward promoting peaceful coexistence amongst Muslims and Christians in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State has commenced.
About 140 youths are participating in the tournament which is played across the various communities which constitute Jos North.
Speaking on the need for the tournament, the organizer, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Displaced Women and Children Foundation and also the Director Face of Peace Global, Salis Mohammad Abdulsalam, said such tournament has the capacity to bring back the stained relationship between the two religions not only in Jos North, but in the state at large.
He said the tournament which will be played along with music and other fanfare will also help to bring back the initial trust and and healthy relationship existing amongst the different ethno-religious groups.
“Any step taken towards cementing the broken relationship between the two religious groups in the state is vital because if we are not proactive to certain peace moves, misunderstanding and suspicion could prevail.
“We are going to carry the peace campaign to those who are directly involved, especially youths engaged in substance abuse, idle persons, among others because we can no longer deal with them through middle persons alone like the ward heads, villages heads, associations, etc.
“This tournament is therefore targeting flash point communities like, Dutse Uku, Tina Junction, Rikkos, Agwan Rukuba, among others to preach peace through football tournament. The communities involved will produce football teams that would represent them in the peace tournament, and that would comprise of both the Muslim and Christian communities,” he said.
He said the competition is purely for peace purpose and not to show the most powerful team or teams as the case may be, adding that the prizes included trophies, jerseys, nets for the goal post and other necessary materials for the tournament.
The organiser further noted that the players will be encourage during the tournament by rewarding the most valuable player, highest goal scorer, among other rewards.
“We have what will call mentoring and counselling session where all the footballers would assemble in one hall in Jos North for counseling and tutorial. We are also creating platform whereby we will start to develop effective strategies that will enhance peaceful coexistence, which is basically what we want to achieve,” he added.
The theme of the tournament is, ‘Music + Football =Peace’.
