The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, yesterday hosted both the victorious national U-20 boys’ team, the Flying Eagles and the national scrabble champions in his office at the MKO Abiola national stadium Abuja.
While the Flying Eagles defeated the Baby Squirrels of Benin Republic last Friday to win the WAFU B U-20 championship in Niamey to qualify for the 2023 Junior AFCON in Egypt, the national scrabble team emerged champions at the recently held West African Scrabble championship in Ghana.
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Apart from producing the Championship’s Most Valuable Player Eta Oghenekaro, Nigeria also emerged the overall Best Country at the regional championship
While commending the scrabble champions, Dare said the confidence displayed during their training sessions paid off resulting in their spectacular performance at the Championship.
He charged the team to find and groom young scrabble enthusiasts that will in no distant future not only replicate their feat but also take it a notch higher and put Nigeria on the continental and world map of scrabble champions.
Based on the team’s recent performances, Nigeria is now rated as the number one scrabble playing nation of the world with eight players in the top 20 in the world.
The Nigerian team won 9 out of 10 available awards at the West African championship.
In the same vein, Dare lauded the Flying Eagles for winning the WAFU B U-20 championship and putting smiles on the faces of Nigerians sports enthusiasts.
He said the future of the senior national men’s team, the Super Eagles is the present generation of the young Flying Eagles players who exhibited the never die spirit of Nigerians in Niger Republic.
“I congratulate the team and the NFF for making it possible for the boys to be in Niger Republic ten days before the commencement of the competition. That was the tonic they needed to win the tournament,” said Dare.
On his part, the General Secretary of the NFF, Dr. Sanusi Mohammed, thanked the Ministry of sports for providing the federation with the enabling environment to excel with the Flying Eagles.
