Nigeria has re-asserted her dominance after Enouch Nwali won the 14th African Scrabble Championship (ASC) which was concluded on Monday in Lusaka, Zambia.
Gatekeepers News reports that the victory came barely 24 hours after Nigeria took over the political affairs of sport in Africa.
Adekoyejo Adegbesan was elected the President of the Pan Africa Scrabble Association (PANASA) after he defeated the incumbent Muhamed Kamara.
Meanwhile, Nwali, who is winning the title for the first time, defeated his closest rival and compatriot Wellington Jighere in a tightly contested round 31.
Wellington, a dogged master of the game, trailed the young gun from day two closely expecting some slip-up from the frontrunner.
However round 31 became a threshold for both players as Jighere who won the African title back-to-back in 2008 and 2010 knew a defeat would be fatal to his ambition of becoming the first player to win the championship three times.
He would go on to gather some pretty points in the early stages of the game as his younger compatriot tried to catch-up.
A quickfire of premiums in three successions with the word ‘TOUSIER’, ‘YEARDING’ and ‘EANLINGS’ propelled Nwali above Jighere as both players hunted for more points in the intriguing encounter.
Nwali finally won the tie by a point as the final score stood at 514-513 after Jighere did some reconciliation for a possible scoring error which could have dragged the game further.
After the result was confirned, the score pushed Nwali’s overall result to 25 and a half wins and 6 and a half losses with a monstrous 2,023 cumulative points and stamped his new status as the 11th Nigerian to have his name etched in history as a winner at the championship.
In May, both players has faced each other in Nigeria at the ‘Sophomore’ Emmanuel Egbele Annual Scrabble Tournament (EEAST) where the ‘Drummer Boy’ triumphed over the former World Champion at the final stage to win the tournament.
On the overall ranking, Jighere finished second with 22 wins and 10 losses while another Nigerian Prince Omosefe came third with same score but with lesser cumulative points.
Oyende Allan of Kenya placed third while Eta Karo finished fifth.
In other news, Tuoyo Mayuku won the Female category.
Meanwhile, this victory in the Southern African country has now extended Nigeria’s dominance on the African scene to 13 wins from the 14 editions held since 1994.
10 countries featured at this edition. The 15th edition will be hosted by Sierra Leone in 2024.
*Past Winners*
Year Winner (Host)
1994 Iffy Onyeonwu (Kenya)
1996 Femi Awowade (Nigeria)
1998 Wale Fashina (South Africa)
2000 Moshood Sanni (Ghana)
2002 Trevor Hovelmeier (Kenya)
2004 Dennis Ikekeregor (Tanzania)
2006 Dennis Ikekeregor (Nigeria)
2008 Jighere Wellington (Kenya)
2010 Jighere Wellington (Ghana)
2012 Rex Ogbakpa (Zambia)
2014 Etim Nsikak (South Africa)
2016 Ayorinde Saidu (Ghana)
2018 Moses Peter (Kenya)
2022 Enoch Nwali (Zambia)
