The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, on Monday in Abuja pledged more support for the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF).
Dare also pledged his ministry’s support for the other federations in charge of the so-called “lesser sports” in Nigeria.
He made the pledge when a delegation of the NSF board and Nigeria’s victorious team to the 2019 World Scrabble Championship which just ended in Goa, India visited him.
While commending the team for its resilience in winning the championship in spite of challenges, Dare, however, noted that scrabble is one of the sports in need of more development in Nigeria.
“We will work with you to elevate the sport to the level of football, athletics and other popular sports in Nigeria,” he said.
Earlier, the President of NSF, Suleiman Gora, had called for more support for the Federation from the government, as well as private and corporate organisations.
He decried the fact that the team almost missed going for the championship due to paucity of funds.
Gora, however, thanked the minister for his support since he assumed duty and expressed optimism that with more support, Nigeria would continue to rule the scrabble world.
NAN reports that Nigeria scrabbles national team beat all opposition to retain the World English Scrabble Players Association Championship (WESPAC) title.
The World Scrabble Championship featured 145 players from 30 countries, with Nigeria represented by 11 players and officials.
Team Nigeria retained the WESPAC Country Trophy it had earlier won in 2015.
The event also saw two Nigerians in fifth and 10th positions in the overall individual ranking at the championship, just as the other Nigerian players were ranked among the top 30 spots.
The championship, which also featured another scrabble tournament tagged Indian International Scrabble Open Tournament, also saw Nigeria winning the title through national coach Anthony Ikolo.
