W/African Scrabble tournament- Ghana scrabble boss commends NSF

The President of Scrabble Association of Ghana (SCAG) said he is happy that the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), is hosting West Africa’s premium scrabble competition, the 2nd edition of the West Africa Scrabble Championship (WASC), and he was satisfied both with the serene environment at the Novatel Hotels, Lekki, Lagos and the overwhelming welcome they received.
The President of the governing body of scrabble in the former Gold Coast, stated in an interview with journalists that he was extremely happy with the entire arrangement.
“I’m very glad to be here and I must say the reception was very overwhelming. For us to continue the 2nd edition of the West Africa Scrabble Championship (WASC), is very overwhelming, but we also want to keep the flame burning for those coming after us and they too will also try to keep the flame alive.”
Haruna Adamu, who was recently elected as an Executive Board Member of the World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA), had nice words for host Nigeria and the participating countries even though some countries could not field players for the annual sub-region championship, “I must say that although we couldn’t have representatives from Liberia and Sierra Leone, Nigeria did a very, very, very, wonderful job in hosting the tournament.”
Haruna Adamu also praised ‘Team Ghana’ squad to the World English Scrabble Players Championship (WESPAC), the PANASA President’s Cup (PPC) and the ongoing West Africa Scrabble Championship (WASC).
“I will say with our excellent performance at the World Championship in Las Vegas, we are writing the story but I know our brothers in Nigeria are up there but we are trying, we are learning from them to try and keep it very tight.” Adamu added.
Haruna Adamu stressed that collective effort was one of the main reasons that the game of words and mind was admitted into the African Olympics family and that the noble boardgame will soon become a medal winning sport in the All African Games.
Hear him, “First I have to thank All Mighty Allah and our Honourable Minister of Sports, Honourable Mustapha and the PANASA President Koyejo Adegbesan. All this people were very instrumental in having scrabble slotted in as a demonstrational sport and we are going to make sure that we are not going to disappoint, who knows come next four years scrabble won’t be a demonstrational sport it would be with the main games someday.”
The experienced scrabble administrator also gave a peek into Ghana’s hosting of the scrabble event in the All Africa Games
“On the 17th of December our President, his Excellency, Nana Akufo-Addo is inaugurating one of the sports venue in Koforibia and scrabble has been invited to play a demonstrational game to sort of like a test run to see how we can get things done, so far we are getting there.”
Haruna Adamu also hinted that come the 1st and 2nd of this month Ghana will be having their national championship adding that “This year we are hoping to have a very chunk size of players, we have beginners coming and we are also inviting those who haven’t played before, newcomers to come, we are also inviting them to come.
“This year is going to be a very solid one because we have our former champion Tachie-Menson Charles coming all the way from the United States to try and get his trophy back which for some three years he hasn’t won, this year is going to be a very fabulous one.”
Adamu, a passionate scrabble enthusiast and administrator, who dearly wants to see Ghanian and African scrabble reach the zenith, put up the best of words that will definitely encourage all youths to put more effort, practice and patience in the mind game.
“I will tell them this, that scrabble is one of those games that when you get into, you know that you won’t get into trouble in terms of truancy and dropouts in school. For my young ones I will say scrabble can take you very far so I will encourage you to sort of try to hold it firm for us.”
When asked about the host of International scrabble tournaments being held and scheduled to hold in Ghana from the historic trophy tour of the African Youth Scrabble Championship trophy that started in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, to the 2025 WESPA Championship that may itself land in Accra, and on to the PANASA Presidents Cup that scheduled to take place in Accra as a sideline event to galvanize support for the World Championship, Haruna Adamu mentioned that, ‘success is good, but it is best shared with those who truly care.’
“Its a great thing to happen but I will not take the success alone, you see my brothers like Toke, Koyejo, and all them when I got elected I started associating myself with them so with the push from them, the zeal came. ‘
President Haruna Adamu, who led Ghana’s delegation to the championship continued by reiterating that this competition among others, has no doubt deepened the relationship of scrabble players on the African continent.
“See it yourself, had it not been the national jersey colours we are wearing you will think we are all from one country. So for those of us who miss coming, I would say scrabble is the next thing coming, it might beat even soccer, you see the camaraderie we have here every body bumps into each other so actually scrabble has been a unifying factor in African sports.
The Executive Board Member of the World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) on the sidelines of the regional championship made this appeal to sponsors and other stakeholders to put their resources into the game of scrabble.
“So for one thing, I will say look at what Nigeria is doing, Nigerian scrabble is being playing at a very high level. You have sponsors coming in. My message to the sponsors is that with the numbers being gathered here in Nigeria it can be replicated anywhere in West Africa.
“For example in Pakistan sponsors are bashing to sponsor scrabble. Sometimes you will come they will tell you oh!, its already being sponsored. We want that to happen in Africa so I will beg sponsors to kindly look into it and put their money in Scrabble and I can assure them, they’ll get the worth of their money”, he concluded