Team Nigeria Eyes Dominance In West African Scrabble Championship

Team Nigeria Eyes Dominance In West African Scrabble Championship

By Our Reporter

Nigeria’s scrabble team has set its sights on total dominance at the first West African Scrabble Championships slated for Accra, Ghana, from May 14 to 19.

A 12-man team was scheduled to be announced yesterday evening following weeklong close camping in Abuja involving 25 players. 

Nigeria will compete alongside hosts, Ghana; Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia and having established itself among the elite nations in the sport, the team, which has world number three, Wellington Jighere and Nigeria’s top ranked star, Olatunde Oduwole, among its brightest medal hopefuls, is poised for a successful outing at the former Gold Coast. 

“We have our reputation and pride at stake and we are not underrating other countries hence we had a closed camp from which our very best players were selected for the championship,” Nigeria Scrabble Federation president, Toke Aka, said yesterday.

He appealed for support towards the team as its plan to attend the tournament by air is threatened by shortage of funds. 

“We need about N8 million for the championship but as things stand, we are likely to go by road, which is very unsuitable. We are hoping to get a support even though we have a very short time,” he said. 

Apart from Jighere, a former world champion, in-form Oduwole, who sits atop the national ranking, as well as Eta Karo, who is the world number four, Emmanuel Umujose and Victor Godwin, will also be on the spotlight. 

Aka added that a dominant outing would further enhance Nigeria’s position in the sport with more of the nation’s players projected to move up in the global rankings, which currently has seven Nigerians in the top 20.