Former World Scrabble Champion, Wellington Jighere, on Friday backed the Nigeria Scrabble Federation decision to remove the sports as optional at the 2018 National Sports Festival.
Ighere took his campaign to his tweeter handle and promised not to stop until scrabble is recognised on the strength of its performance and be placed as a mandatory sport.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the President of Nigeria Scrabble Federation, Suleiman Gora, had earlier made a call in Abuja that scrabble should be removed from the optional list.
Some sports federations have been protesting their non-inclusion in the festival, scheduled for Abuja in December due to their classification as optional sports in the 2018 NSF.
Scrabble is one of the sports classified as optional sports, meaning that competition in the sport at the festival is based on its choice by participating states.
Jighere, in his twitter account, expressed his disappointment at the decision to exclude the sport from the forth coming NSF.
He tweeted: “My country, Nigeria, is number one in scrabble. Ironically, not only does my government not support scrabble, it removes scrabble from the prestigious National Sports Festival.
“Scrabble is a source of employment for many in Nigeria. Excluding Scrabble from NSF is tantamount to denying us our means of livelihood.’’
Jighere also expressed disappointment at the non-recognition of his previous efforts in scrabble, being a former world champion in the sport.
He said: “Imagine striving to be mentally alert whilst functioning on less than two hours of sleep per 24 hours for six consecutive days.
“That is what I had to go through to emerge World Scrabble Champion and still they will not recognise my labour?
“The labor of our heroes past shall never be in vain. Here I am finding my past sacrifices amounting to vanity. Why can’t you just#BringBackOurScrabble.
“Excluding Scrabble from the forthcoming National Sports Festival can only mean that we are not interested in nation building.
“How else do you explain us refusing to aid the development of the only sport wherein we are Number one globally?
“Although there is no positive feedback concerning our plight, we will still fight.”
He called on stake holders in scrabble to lend their voice to ensure inclusion of the scrabble in NSF “to undo this injustice”.
NAN reports that Youth and Sports Development Minister, Solomon Dalung, has said that performance was a major factor in classifying sports at the NSF.
The minister has, however, also conceded that sports categorisation was the prerogative of the National Sports Council.
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