The president of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, Olobatoke Aka, in an interview with CHARLES OGUNDIYA in Accra has said the future is secured for the sport in Nigeria as several youths have taken to the Mind Game. Excerpts.

Scrabble Federation has been one of the few federations in Nigeria that have won titles at world stage, how has it been? We have been coping on our own. It’s only recently we started getting some little support from the ministry but the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, is an avid lover of scrabble and for the eight years he was the governor of Akwa Ibom State, he fully supported scrabble. Every year, we had an international scrabble classic in Uyo. His first year, we had a reception for him but seven other years after that, we had an international event in Uyo which was attended by world grades. That alone helped to encourage our players because it was something to look forward to. It was an event that we used to have as much as 500 participants and for scramble the players take care of themselves because they know that there is something to win at the end of the day. For that reason, you tend to want to invest and that is why scrabble can thrive on its own. Towards the last World Championships, the Senate President supported us to the tune of about $10,000 for the trip to the US. With him, once we have see him, we know that we are fully covered.

How do you get the best player each time? We have a robust ranking system whereby games played all over the country are rated in the center and as such at any time we can tell you who our best players are and if we have to present a team all we have to do is look at the rating system and pick the top players to go represent us. Like when we were told to submit names for the African Games, we just went to the ranking system and picked because every game you play contributes towards your quota and it doesn’t lie. It’s only the best that will rise to the top just like in every tournament.

The African Games is just a demonstration sport this year… Yes, it is a demonstration for the very first time, it’s like a culmination of all our efforts over the past 30 years. The African scrabble championship has been going on for no less than 30 years. We are going for the 16th edition in Sierra Leone, October this year. We have done 15 editions in the past and we won 14 and came second once. That’s in Africa. We started the West Africa about two years ago, the first was here in Ghana and then we hosted last year in Nigeria. We won both editions. That’s like a no brainer because if we are African champions and we are now doing regional championships it is expected that we should win. This year’s West Africa championship will also hold in Sierra Leone as a way of saving countries expenditure. Maybe few days before the African championship we will host the West African Cup and then do the African championship.

Is it only adults that play scrabble? We have a lot of youths now who are top players in scrabble in Nigeria and that’s because there was a time we had Scrabble Olympics in Lagos where secondary schools were featuring in like an Olympic for scrabble. We also have Chrisland schools supporting primary level of scrabble. All that has already given us hope for the future. In the world if you look at the rankings, in the top 20 you will find no less than eight Nigerians. That is a rating system that has participants from well over 40 countries in the world. One country has eight in the top 20. We have been number one in the world since 2015. After every World Championship, countries are rated and we have been No. 1 consecutively for close to nine years now.

Do we have enough talents in scrabble? We have abundant talents as far as scrabble is concerned especially from the Delta region. The Delta region players I don’t really know the reason behind that. Let me say their smartness and sixth sense for survival is one of the important attributes towards their winning of the game because being crafty can also allow you to win. Some of them are not even people who have been to the university, these are people who just finished secondary school and have the capacity to assimilate, to read far and wide. The dictionary has well over 250,000 words and to learn 200,000 words; if you know 200,000 words then you don’t even need all of that but because of the statistics involved in the play. There is a science behind the play because the distribution of the tiles in the scrabble bag there are certain words you must know very well before other words. If you go the extra mile to know the other words it’s a plus for you because those other words will save you on a day when those ones that are very frequent to come to your mind don’t come. Because the youths also see what they can get from the game, monetary terms, support; schools, scholarships and all that from those who are wealthy among the scrabble community. Everybody loves a champion and wealthy scrabble players don’t waste time in supporting anyone they see that is up and coming. An example is Dennis Ikekeregor who won the African Championship in 2006.

Have you done enough for the game to now be a scoring event rather than demonstration? The minimum standard they look for in acceptability is the number of countries and number of participants and the spread. All of that we have achieved. There were 10 English speaking countries that came and four French speaking countries.