By Omorogbe Omorogiuwa
Think of a tournament in Northeast Nigeria where teams must register equal number of Christian and Muslim participants. A sporting competition bringing together at-risk youths from the various religious and ethnic communities making up Adamawa state has kicked off in Yola with great expectation. The brain child of the American University of Nigeria and Adamawa Peace Initiative (API), the Peace Through Sports program targets vulnerable youths in communities around Yola and Jimeta for positive engagement, fun, learning, interaction and bonding. Program Coordinator and Executive Director for Resident Life, Mr Abdullahi Bello, said the idea is to “improve their ability to deal with conflict and violence and help attain and sustain peace in these communities.”
A holistic, year-long program comprising peace workshops, sporting competitions and skill acquisition, the AUN-API sponsored Peace Through Sports program has 1,512 participants drawn into 104 sporting teams. The organizers registered 888 male and 624 female participants, equally drawn from Muslim and Christian populations and cutting across age groups of between 14 and 32. They will be organized into “Unity Teams.”
Participants represent over 50 percent of the ethnic inclinations in the state. A culturally diverse and vibrant community, Adamawa state has over 80 ethnic and several language groups. While a majority of the selected youths are native Hausa speakers, Mr Bello said, “We also have Yoruba and Igbo participants as well.”
The registered 104 teams comprise 48 soccer teams, 28 volley ball teams, and 32 basketball teams. There are 32 male soccer teams (ages 14-32), 16 female soccer teams (ages 13-25), 12 female volleyball teams (ages 13-22), 12 male volleyball teams (Ages 12-30), 16 male basketball teams (ages 13-28), and 16 female basketball teams (ages 12-26).
Over 1,500 youths attended a weeklong pre-tournament workshop which opened at AUN’s Commencement Hall on February 3, where motivational speakers and change leaders took turns to highlight the message and sub-themes of the tournament. Attending the workshops was a pre-requisite for participating in the competition. The opening day of the workshop was a foundation session on peace and conflict study, which approached violence from global, national and local perspectives including sources of conflict, positive and negative peace, peace movements, war, and the role of international organizations. President of AUN, Dr. Margee Ensign and Revered Dr. Peter Bartimawus of the EYN Church, were the facilitators.
Day two, facilitated by renowned US security consultant, Dr. Lionel Rawlins, focused on war and peace, examining in detail the sources and responses to violent international, National and Local conflict. Contemporary case studies are often used. It also examined the root causes of conflict from a variety of perspectives including sociology, political science (international relations), and psychology.
Day three was for peace education, theory and practice, addressing the potential role and use of sports as a global and local tool for conflict prevention, social transformation, community development and peace building. It had Dr. Fidelis Ndeh-Che and Bello, speaking.
Chief Information Officer Julius Ayuk-Tabe and Legal Adviser Barrister Idi Haladu Ali anchored the session on basic conflict resolution which focused on both the theory and skills in applied conflict resolution including mediation, facilitation, arbitration, friendship and negotiation in domestic and international contexts.
The last session on non-violence and faith-based/ ethical perspective on peace had the Catholic archbishop of Yola diocese, Dr. Stephen Mamza and the Secretary of the Adamawa Muslim Council, Imam Dauda Bello examined peace from the faith perspective and in an ethical context, throwing in the case studies of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.
Defining vulnerability, Bello said, “These are youths who either lack family or community support, young people who have unstable family situations, young people who enter school behind peers and fail to catch up, young people who are often absent from school, young people who are disconnected from learning by virtue of class, gender, or economic status.”
To identify the most vulnerable youths and nominate them for participation or for free ICT training, Bello said that the API relies on its members who are respected in the community. They include religious, traditional and business leaders well entrenched in their respective communities and can easily identify these vulnerable youths. “The AUN-API also works with principals and teachers who work closely with high school students, who are failing to catch up academically, often absent from school or have unstable family situations. It also works with local coaches who are community volunteers in the Yola and Jimeta areas of Adamawa State.
President of American University of Nigeria, Dr. Ensign, urged the youths to keep learning ways to maintain peace. She said learning is one of the pathways that have been identified for peace. “We have identified 1,500 of you not only to be doing sports but to make sure you know how to keep learning. This University is going to support your continuous learning, to find ways to deal with anger, to practice forgiveness, to never lose hope to stay positive, to work for change and to care for others.”
Dr. Ensign explained the deepening of the relationship between the American University of Nigeria and the Adamawa community, tracing the bonding process to the formation of API by the University in January 2012. “We decided to focus on youths. We decided to try to identify with positive youths and that is 1,500 of you. You are the ones that will continue to make the change that is necessary. The first program we put our positive youths in is Peace Through Sports.” The President pointed out that the program is enjoying the support of the Government of the United States, which gave AUN-API some grants to ensure that youths are positively engaged.
Besides the Peace Through Sport program, AUN is also involved in Peace through Education through its literacy training, as well as free ICT and entrepreneurship training for youths in the region. “We are trying to build more employment in this region so when you finish school, there would be more opportunity for employment and for income,” the President said.
“We don’t want to live in a society where people are just fearful that there could be another war. Peace is living in harmony and prosperity. Peace is when people can work together and can resolve their conflict without problems. Research tells us that societies where boys and girls are treated equally are more peaceful. And countries that are peaceful have low levels of corruption.”
She identified eight pillars for peace: Good relations with neighbors, well-functioning government, equitable distribution of resources, free flow of information, sound business environment, high level of human capital, acceptance of the rights of others, low levels of corruption.
A founding member of API and workshop facilitator, Rev Bartimawus, explained how sports can engender peace in a society. “Sports can be used to help us work together, to help us interact, to help us build a culture of tolerance.”
He advised the contingents to get to know themselves. “We hope that during your time together, you will get to know someone from another school. We want you to cross consciously to befriend another person from another school. Get to know somebody closely. Whether he is a Christian or a Muslim, that is not the issue. Whether from a girls’ school or a boys’ school is not the issue. We are here to help you work you through peace through sports. Sports has power, power to unite.
“Our hope is that you will get to know and interact with one another and you will cultivate friendship, relationship that will augur for peace. We hope that your time together will help you cultivate team work and team spirit and to develop relationships that will augur for peace.
“While we are here in the campus of AUN, we hope that you will transfer this spirit of working together, of teaming together for the common good of our country. We hope that through these interactions, we look forward to a better Nigeria.
Dr. Ndeh-Che, AUN’s Executive Director for Projects and Proposals, enjoined the participants to desist from forming opinions based on fallacious comments.
The football tournament kicked off last Saturday.