By Maxwell Kumoye
Nigerian scrabble players are facing the prospect of missing the African Senior Championship in Kigali, Rwanda as the Sports Minister John Enoh said there is no money for the team to travel.
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) has been told to source for funds for the 15 players and five officials who are now likely to miss the opportunity of defending the title they won two years ago in Lusaka, Zambia, if they cannot find sponsors.
The Sports Ministry claimed that they have spent all the Federal allocations on the 13th African Games and the shambolic, disgraceful and woeful outing of Paris Olympic Games. Ironically, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu told the over 100 million youths of the country, which include these abandoned scrabble players that his administration cares deeply about them in his Independence Day broadcast on Tuesday.
This development has forced members of Team Nigeria Scrabble who are mostly young fresh graduates and unemployed youths to be begging friends, family members and school mates for money in order to make the trip to Kigali in three weeks time.
Ebonyi State born; Lagos based Enoch Nwali of the University of Lagos is the defending champion of the individual category while Nigeria is the defending champion of the team event of the African Scrabble Championship.
It’s imperative to mention that Nigeria took the first three positions at the last African Scrabble Championship they had five players in the top ten bracket in Lusaka, Zambia.
Nigeria has also won 13 of the previous 14 editions of the individual competition which started in 1994 and have won all the team titles.
It’s noteworthy to state that Nigeria is the best scrabble playing nation in the World while Oluwatimilehin Doko a member of Team Nigeria is currently the highest African in the World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA), rating at number 8 and four other Nigerians are in the top 20.
Last month, it took a last-minute intervention by Kwara State Government for Nigeria to participate in the World Youth Scrabble Championship in Sri Lanka.