The Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF)President, Olobatoke Aka said Scrabble will be feature as a demonstration sport at the next All Africa games.
Mr Aka made this known at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Africa Youth Scrabble Championship held on Thursday August 24 at Chrisland School, Lekki, Lagos.
The NSF President told VON correspondent, Damola Olorunfemi that this is the first time that Scrabble will feature in an All Africa games, noting that the barriers militating against the progress of the Scrabble sport is being removed gradually.
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation President said “Maybe you do not know, the next All Africa games Scrabble will be featuring as a demonstration sport. This is another first, so you can see that the barriers militating against the progress of the game in times past are beginning to be removed gradually. I think going forward the sky is just our starting point”
He also added that Nigeria being the power house of Scrabble in Africa it is indeed a thing of joy to host the 2023 African Youth Scrabble Championship in the country.
Aka said “Now let go come back to the Africa Youth Championship, which is the very first time we will be holding such a continent of Africa. This is coming like 10years after we started the World Youth Championship, which you know is on a yearly basis. We should have taken queue from when it started but then they said it is never too late, so starting and starting with Nigeria which is the power house of Scrabble in Africa is indeed a thing of joy for us. Well I have told you Nigeria is the power house of Scrabble in Africa, we have won 13 editions out of the 14 editions of the Africa Championship in the senior category. We already have alot of youngsters that are ready to take over from the seniors, they are just lurking in the corridor and these same Youths that are lurking in the corridor I can also assure you that they will make us proud at the end of the day.”
The 2023 African Youth Scrabble Championship holds with over 150 young players from 12 countries expected in attendance at the Chrisland School, Lekki-Lagos.
According to the organisers, students under 15 and 19 years old will participate in the African Youth Scrabble Championship with the tournaments concluding on Monday, August 28, 2023.
While the 13th African Games are expected to be held in Ghana between March 8 and 23 2024, with the games events hosted in three cities Accra, Kumasi, and Cape Coast. This is the second time in history that the games will be decentralized into three cities in a host country.
COV/DAMOLA
