National Scrabble players beg for cash, tickets after FG abandons them

The Federal Ministry of Sports has washed its hands off Team Nigeria Scrabble that is heading to Kigali, Rwanda for the defense of the African Senior Championship it won two years ago in Lusaka, Zambia.

It was learnt by ExtrasportsNigeria the Federal Ministry of Sports Development has told the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, that due to lack of funds they cannot support them to Rwanda for the championship.

The Sports Ministry officials say they have spent all the Federal allocations on the 13th African Games and the Paris Olympic Games.

 NSF is now expected to source for funds for the 15 players and 5 officials who are expected to represent Nigeria at the competition which starts on the 23rd of this month.

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.

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.

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 competitions which started in 1994 and have won all the team titles.

Nigeria is rated as 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.