By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
As Coach Oliver B. Johnson (OBJ) who has contributed 50 years of his life in developing basketball in Nigeria turned 77 years on April 7, he has assured that more peace zones will be donated to North East Nigeria, courtesy of Basketball For Peace (BB4P).
He expressed this while acknowledging birthday greetings on phone from our correspondent on Sunday from his base in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, where he has been for decades.
According to him, the commissioning of the first ever basketball court in in the North Eastern town of Doho in Kwami Local Government Area of Gombe State marked their activities in the zone.
He explained that in 14 years of BB4P flagship programmes, they initially started up with five pilot states of Plateau, Delta, Rivers, Kaduna and Kano.
“Right now we have expanded our activities to other states which include Niger in the North Central, the Federal Capital Territory and the most exciting to me is the North East, where a lot of work needs to be done on consolidating on the peace that is returning after the ouster of Boko Haram,” he added.
Coach OBJ appealed to the three tiers of government, corporate organisations and public spirited individuals to contribute towards making it possible for the peace zones to be established.
“With little contributions we can achieve a lot and engage our youth positively, keeping them away from social vices,” he emphasized.
The Basketball For Peace (BB4P) organization has handed over the first ever basketball court.
Basketball 4 Peace, a non-governmental organization established in 2003 by the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria Basketball Foundation and sponsored by United States of America (USA)
has within the time frame established no fewer than 50 peace zones scattered across Nigeria.
It was gathered that there are plans to expand its activities to other West African countries, in view of the successes recorded in Nigeria.
Doho town is a small community under Kwami Local Government Area in Gombe State, located about eighteen kilometers away from Gombe State capital, it has been in existence for about eight hundred years with a population of about ten thousand people, dominated by Tera (Terawa) ethnic group, one of the largest ethnic groups in Gombe State.
