Nigeria Scrabble Federation President Toke Aka has urged states to get more acquainted with the rules and regulations guiding the game.
Aka who disclosed this at the end of the 5-day scrabble event at the National Sports Festival tagged ‘Gateway Games’ expressed his worry on the inability of some teams to understand the requirements on selection for Teams Event and other categories.
“Let me first express my displeasure at the way some states sent in their players with lack of understanding on how the games are played. For example,” he pointed “for it is said that states can register a minimum of 12 players, that’s three per category. You know we have the Masters, Intermediate, Opens and Female. The reason we say a minimum of three is because we have a team event and it’s a minimum of three players per team event. We have seen here where a player falls ill and the state was unable to participate in the event. I have heard from somewhere that it’s the federation that asked them to come with three players. The federation never said that. What the federation says is that, you must have a minimum of three players with reserve so that when illness happens, you can still fall back on your reserves.”
“Some states will say, I will give you two players but by that condition, you’ve already disenfranchised yourself because you can’t really participate in such category.”
“By having a reserve, you will be vying for four medals instead of two medals” he said.
He commended the positive development scrabble witnessed with as much as 30 percent of the players who attended the Games were newbies whose level of competition was beyond the level of beginners.
He however, despite the enviable status the country enjoys at the international circuit, believed the country is yet to hit the level expected of it.
*I have always said it that we are far from where we ought to be despite the many laurels we get. This means, if we get to where we should be, for the rest of the world to catch-up with us, it will be impossible. You know Nigeria is a multi-talented country with various intelligent levels.”
Team Ogun State topped the overall medals table with 4 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal while Team FCT placed second with 3 gold and a bronze medal.
Delta finished 3rd with 2 gold, 2 silver and one bronze medal.
Over 150 players from 24 states featured at the Games which had its first medal status at the 2004 Abuja Games.
