Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq hosted the organisers of the #PlayWithKwaraYouth initiative in Ilorin on Thursday, praising its commitment to fostering unity, peace, and harmony within the state.

Governor AbdulRazaq highlighted his administration's dedication to empowering youth and involving them in governance initiatives.

Established in 2022, #PlayWithKwaraYouth hosts annual sporting events that engage young people from diverse backgrounds, promoting unity and easing political tensions across the state.

“I thank you for this initiative. Play with Kwara Youths, as said, is to bring youth together, foster unity, progress, and proper engagement and understanding among the youth,” the Governor said when he received a delegation of #PlayWithKwaraYouth on a courtesy visit to the Government House in Ilorin.

“As this programme is coming at the end of this year, we look forward to it and how we can engage with you to make it a huge success.

“We also look forward to a situation whereby this programme will be held simultaneously in every local government of the state on December 28."

The Governor called the project a good initiative and likened it to the boy scout association in terms of rapid growth and popularity worldwide.

“You are incubating an idea that has the potential to go national and not just remain in the state, and also to expand it beyond football, ludo, table tennis and other games as well,” he said.

“You are actually bringing something that could rival the State Sport Festival in a different way.

This has the sole agenda of engaging and uniting people, rather than being a competition to win trophies and laurels.

“This is more about engagement than winning the championship. I thank you for the visit, and we look forward to engaging you along the way."

The Governor received the delegation alongside Special Adviser on Special Duties Alhaji AbdulRazaq Jiddah and APC Chieftain Alhaji Raheem Adedoyin.

Convener of the group, Yusuf Mutiu Olaitan, said they came up with the project in December 2022 prior to the 2023 general elections to unite Kwara youth and discourage violence while exercising their civic duties.

“We put this together to strengthen unity among the youth, because we believe it is one of the ways Kwarans can be seen as one, irrespective of the outcome of the election results,” he said.

“One of the focal reasons was that the Kwara youth, especially those in the political space, saw the atmosphere then to be so intense to the extent that even brothers and sisters were having issues within and among themselves because of political party differences. We felt this should not be so."

Basheer Luqman Olanrewaju, the group's spokesperson, said they adopted football and other games as unifying forces with at least forty-five of them as pioneers.

He said another objective was to also support the efforts of Governor Abdulrazaq, whom he called a "sports loving Governor", to promote peace and unity among the citizens.

“We believe that one of the unifying factors is playing football and other games together. We started with 45 individuals, but the turnout was very overwhelming. We visited the Emir Dr. Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari and he gave us the motto 'Kwara first'", he said.

“So, since then, we have decided that every December 28, we are going to have it as a game in complementing your efforts as a sports loving Governor.

“While many of us definitely canvassed, worked and prayed for Your Excellency's victory at the polls because we were and are still convinced of your good performances, we acknowledged that we have people who have separate political beliefs. So, the idea is to ensure that our political differences should not give room for violence during the elections and after."