Winifred Awosika scrabble tourney holds in Lagos

The Winifred Awosika Foundation 6th National Junior Scrabble Tournament for Schools was on Saturday held at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall l, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.

The tournament had in attendance competing pupils from five out of the nation’s six geo-political zones to commemorate the 80th birthday of the founder of the Winifred Awosika Foundation, High Chief Mrs Winifred Awosika.

Speaking with our correspondent, Awosika said the tournament was a way to build future leaders and stimulate their brains.

She said, “It is part of education, we are educationists and we are grooming future leaders who will think clearly before taking any action,” she told Sunday PUNCH.

“So, we believe that scrabble will help them to make good use of their brain power; it makes people think out of the box, to use their talents creditably.

“That is why we are sponsoring scrabble, to stimulate their brains, to encourage them to make good use of their mental faculty.”

President of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, Suleiman Gora, said the tournament was a way of developing new talents.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity, considering that every sporting association’s ambition is to discover talents and that’s why we have things like the National Youths Games, that takes place in Ilorin. It is good that we are having this, she (Awosika) has created a platform for us and this has enabled us to discover talents that would represent the country in the future,” Gora said.

“Just last year, the boy that came second in this competition won two gold medals at the Youth Games in Ilorin and the girl that came first also won a medal, so, you can see the development moving from this particular level to the national level.”

He also said the federation was looking at the option of partnering with Awosika to bring the World Youth Scrabble Championships to Nigeria next year.

At the end of the tournament, Beulah Allswell from Akwa Ibom State emerged as winner, going home with the star prize of N250,000, while Emmanuella Bala from Niger State got N150,000 for placing second.

Charles Maxwell and Demilade Onibudo tied in third place, to win N100,000 each.