20 March 2006
NIGERIA: OBJ calls for more peace zones
Veteran basketball coach,Oliver B. Johnson was enthiastic last weekend in Warri,shortly after the second round matches in the ongoing inter-Peace zone league matches organised by his pet project, the Basketball for Peace Initiative (BB4P).
OBJ who has become the cynosure of all eyes in Warri with his vintage Volkswagen Beetle was full of joy from the response of youths in the oil rich but crisis prone Niger Delta, to the game of basketball and the raw talent on display. ‘This place is just great and no number of courts (Peace Zone) will be enough for these kids the way things are going, we must get more of the courts, he said at the Don Domingos College Peace zone.
Johnson who had just watched the youths of Daudu under coach Eric Ozoro chalked up their second victory over the Don Domingos male team,while their female counterparts saved the day by beating the Ladies from Daudu. In the morning in Sapele, the host lads under coach Peter Broadrick clinched their first victory after losing to Daudu in Warri a week earlier.
They beat Mereogun youths under Kingsley Aguara, who the week before beat Don Domingos in Mereogun. One sad point however for OBJ is the inability of Sapele to raise a female team the only zone so far not having a female squad.
According to the Delta State Coordinator for Basketball for Peace, Charles Arubi, the possibilities for having more peace zones are very high achievable. ‘I am looking at the possibilities of having as much as sixty zones by next year anr right now I am working out the strategies which I will sell to other members of the state basketball associatin immediately after our inauguration’.
“Delta is unique in every sense and there is the urgent need to create more avenus for the youths to express themselves and no cost is too much to achieve this as the cost of violence will be much more”, he said.
“The 3on3 tournament scheduled for this weekend in Mereogun will open up a new vista for the youths and we look forward to doing more for them. We are therefore appealing to the communities, local and state governments and the various companies operating in the Delta to be part of this project for the benefit of all.
Youths who are fully engaged cannot be a source of nuisance to the and we owe the youths the duty to provide play ground for them since they have a right to play”, Arubi concluded.
OBJ who has become the cynosure of all eyes in Warri with his vintage Volkswagen Beetle was full of joy from the response of youths in the oil rich but crisis prone Niger Delta, to the game of basketball and the raw talent on display. ‘This place is just great and no number of courts (Peace Zone) will be enough for these kids the way things are going, we must get more of the courts, he said at the Don Domingos College Peace zone.
Johnson who had just watched the youths of Daudu under coach Eric Ozoro chalked up their second victory over the Don Domingos male team,while their female counterparts saved the day by beating the Ladies from Daudu. In the morning in Sapele, the host lads under coach Peter Broadrick clinched their first victory after losing to Daudu in Warri a week earlier.
They beat Mereogun youths under Kingsley Aguara, who the week before beat Don Domingos in Mereogun. One sad point however for OBJ is the inability of Sapele to raise a female team the only zone so far not having a female squad.
According to the Delta State Coordinator for Basketball for Peace, Charles Arubi, the possibilities for having more peace zones are very high achievable. ‘I am looking at the possibilities of having as much as sixty zones by next year anr right now I am working out the strategies which I will sell to other members of the state basketball associatin immediately after our inauguration’.
“Delta is unique in every sense and there is the urgent need to create more avenus for the youths to express themselves and no cost is too much to achieve this as the cost of violence will be much more”, he said.
“The 3on3 tournament scheduled for this weekend in Mereogun will open up a new vista for the youths and we look forward to doing more for them. We are therefore appealing to the communities, local and state governments and the various companies operating in the Delta to be part of this project for the benefit of all.
Youths who are fully engaged cannot be a source of nuisance to the and we owe the youths the duty to provide play ground for them since they have a right to play”, Arubi concluded.
# posted by afrbk : 15:20
