SCRABBLE COMPETITION FOR TEENAGERS IN KWARA, NIGERIA

ABDULQADIR DEFEATED THREE OTHER FINALISTS TO WIN TOBA ADEYEYE SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIP

Jeff is the annoying kind of Scrabble player who plays a lot of obscure two-letter words that shouldn't count but for whatever reason are considered legitimate. My father is the annoying kind of Scrabble player who takes hours with his turn and then plays deliberately misspelled words that no one has the heart to call him out on. Bennett Madison

The final match

Fourteen students made up of six males and eight females from eleven schools in Kwara state qualified for the Scrabble championship after winning a spelling-bee challenge among the students that participated in IDISD Summer Lesson programme. The championship which was played at Pakata LGEA School, Ilorin ended on the 8^th of September, 2019 after the final match and prize presentation.

The unique part of this competition was that the students were seeing scrabble for the first time. It was after they got selected for the competition coordinated by the Executive Director of IDISD, Mr. Hanafi Olanrewaju Rabiu that they were taught and trained how to play scrabble. Within a few training sessions, the students understood the game and the competition started accordingly on the 30^th of August, 2019. Divided into four groups for the qualifying stage, four students qualified for the final match.

(From Left) Zainab, Abdulqadir, Mr. Toba Adeyeye, Hameedah, Mr. Hanafi, Hanifah and Mr. Ismail

The final match which was watched by the sponsor of the competition, Mr. Toba Adeyeye of Akot Prints, the teachers and other students was played among four finalists namely: Abdulsalam Abdulqadir (male) of Imam Darul-Hijra Secondary School, Abdullahi Hameedah (female) of Pakata Senior Secondary School, AbdulRasheed Hanifah (female) of Government Girls Day Secondary School, Pakata and Isiaq Zainab (female) of Federal Government College, Ilorin.

After a keenly contested match that lasted for more than forty minutes, Abdulsalam Abdulqadir emerged the winner after scoring the highest score of 120 points. Hameedah came second; Zainab came third while Hanifah took the fourth position. The best player went home with a scrabble, scrabble dictionary and cash prize. The second position was awarded prizes of a scrabble, three IDISD customized Exercise Books and cash prize. The third position went home with a scrabble, three IDISD customized Exercise Books and cash prize, while the fourth position got three IDISD customized Books and cash prize.

Apart from the prizes won, participants talked about how the game had helped them to improve their vocabulary, time management, risk taking, and positive attitude to live.

The below are the details of the fourteen participants of the championship:

S/N	NAME	SEX	SCHOOL
1	Nurudeen Abdulhakeem	M	Mandate Senior Secondary School, Adeta.
2	Isiaq Zainab	F	Federal Government College, Ilorin.
3	Shuaib Imam Fatihullahi	M	Abata Baba Oyo Secondary Sch., Ilorin.
4	Hassan Taofeeqoh	F	Government Day Sec. Sch., Adewole.
5	Abdulmumeen Abdulganiy	M	Model Sec. Sch., Adewole
6	Abdulqadir Abdulsalam	M	Imam Darul-Hijrah Sec. Sch., Ilorin.
7	Abdulqadir Muslimat	F	Socrates College, Ilorin.
8	Abdulrasheed Hanifah	F	Government Girls Day Senior Sec. Sch., Ilorin.
9	Isiaq Abdulqudus	M	Ansarul Islam Senior Sec. Sch.
10	Abdullahi .T. Hameedah	F	Pakata Senior Sec. Sch., Ilorin
11	Saheed Masturoh	F	Pakata Senior Sec. Sch., Ilorin
12	Busari Juweerat	F	Pakata Senior Sec. Sch., Ilorin
13	Abdulmubeen Abdulateef	M	Ansarul Islam Sec. Sch., Ilorin
14	Shuaib Haleemah	F	Mandate Sec. Sch., Adewole

Mr. Hanafi teaching the participants on how to play scrabble

Written by Olanrewaju Rabiu Hanafi