Gradually, we’re putting Scrabble back on track – Aka

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Nigeria Scrabble Federation president, Chief Toke Aka has disclosed that very soon the federation will occupy its rightful place in the comity of sports in the country.

Speaking ahead of the trials for the African Championship qualifiers and the Abuja National Open Championship, Chief Aka told Blueprint sport at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium that “putting Scrabble back on track entails a lot of work and co-operation from my Board members unfortunately some of them are not on the same page with me.

“Some of them don’t know why they are in the Board. Scrabble is an individual game and I must confessed that the sport had witnessed decline after my exit as president. I was in office again after eight year that I left.

“If I say I’m happy with where we are I’m not saying the truth. We have not made enough progress but I’m back to take Scrabble to the top again. Yes, I want to take it even beyond the level I left the sport because a lot of things had come into the world now.”

The amiable president opines that the federation is going to leverage on the positive impact of Social media to make giant strides and prioritize several key eco-system to make the game thrive in the country after the slump witnessed recently by federation.

And as part of the activities to make sun shine again, the federation is using the opportunity to hold its board meeting Friday at the Velodrome and organize the Abuja National Open Championship which is slated for 1st and 2nd of October, 2022 at the Moshood Abiola Stadium.

Meanwhile, the Federation on Wednesday commenced the process of selecting 10 players for the 2022 Africa Scrabble Championship which holds in Zambia next month.

Nigeria is the current holder of the title which Moses Peter won in 2019.

The invited players were drawn from the top 20 as at 30th of April ranking by the NSF.

Top 20 rated players in the Masters category will battle for the available slots over 24 rounds of games.

No. 1 ranked Godwin Victor, double African champion and World Champion Wellington Jighere with Eta Karo who won the West Africa Scrabble Tournament in Ghana top the list of invited players for the two-day qualifiers.

Current title holder Moses Peter will not be competing as his name was conspicuously missing after he failed to cut into the top 20 according to the rankings.

Meanwhile, 8  players have also been given wild card entries to seek for slots in the Women and Youth categories.