The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has entered into a mutually beneficial partnership with a youth group, National Development Youth Project to support peaceful co-existence among Nigerians through the game of football.
During the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), yesterday in Abuja, the National coordinator, National Development Youth Project, (NDYP) Mr Bonaventure Chime said a football competition will soon be organized across the 774 local governments in Nigeria.
He stated further that the choice of football is because of the strong appeal it has among the youths.
Without undermining the importance of other sports, the NDYP Coordinator reiterated that everywhere in the world, football is the most followed sport.
“What we intend doing is to use football which has power to unite the nation to preach peace in all the local governments.
“We want to use the power of football to engender more peaceful co-existence among the different ethnic nationalities,” he said.
In the same vein, the deputy chairman of ALGON, Barrister Shehu Marshall said the hallmark of the association is to bring peace to the country from the grassroots.
“Because of the significance of ALGON in Nigeria, we felt it was important to have peace and also empower Nigerian youths which is one of the hallmarks of our association.
“ALGON is fully and ready to bring about peace and youth empowerment in Nigeria. With our presence in 774 local governments in Nigeria, we provide an enabling environment for peace to reign in Nigeria,” he said.
The football competition to be known as ALGON Cup will be unveiled on April 26th and will kick off nationwide on May 2.
