Patrick Omorodion
13 October 2008
The 8th African Scrabble Championship ended in Nairobi, Kenya with Nigeria's Wellington Jighere replacing his compatriot, Dennis Ikekeregor as the continent's champion and carting away the top prize of 250,000 Kenyan Shillings.
Jighere won 18 of the 24 games played to push high riding Ibukun Faloye who broke the record of longest play on Table One with 19 games to the second position with the highest cummulative of 1,419.
Another Nigerian, Chinedu Okwelogu, whose record of 16 games on Table One set in Ghana in 2000 was broken by Faloye, emerged third with 16 wins, same with two other Nigerians, Emmanuel Umujose and Eta Karo, but with a better cummulative of 987.
Team Nigeria which entered 20 players in the 56 player championship, two less than host Kenya, maintained dominance of the sport in Africa, registering eigth players among the best 10 players in the continent.
They include Emmanuel Umujose, the winner of the Apkabio International Scrabble Championship in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, who placed fourth; Eta Karo in fifth; Ayorinde Saidu in sixth; Azu Ogbogu in eight and Moses Peter in ninth.
The only position which went to other countries are positions seven and 10th which went to two Kenyans, Willy Mwangi and Patrick Litunya respectively. Former African Champion, Ikekeregor managed the 11th position while Nigeria's only female player, Tuoyo Mayuku placed 29th but remains the best female player in Africa with a cash prize of 15,000 Kenyan Shillings.
President of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), Chief Toke Aka who also played placed 26th while the first African scrabble champion, Nigeria's Femi Awowade was 24th. He attributed the players' feat to hard work.
Jighere, while dedicating his victory to God, said he was very happy to have won the championship after playing so many games before without winning any.
"God inspired me and this victory means everything to me because I have played so many final games on Table One without winning any," he said, adding however that he was not aspiring to retain the title like Ikekeregor in 2010 because, "I want to concentrate on my final exams in Uniben. That year will be a scrabble-free year for me. After getting my degree I will return to scrabble."
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