Former President of the Pan African Scrabble Association (PANASA), Engineer Toke Aka, has urged newly elected president Haruna Adamu to prioritise engagement with national federations, strengthen the association’s secretariat and provide practical support to expand the reach of Scrabble across Africa.
Aka, a founding and executive member of the World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA), said Adamu must take the initiative to identify the challenges facing national associations and help them develop sustainable strategies to increase participation in continental competitions.
The Managing Director of Kadeggs Nigeria Limited and immediate past president of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) stressed that expanding scrabble across the continent would require more than ambitious plans, insisting that effective engagement and consistent follow-up were essential to achieving meaningful progress.
“I wish him well, and I must tell him that it is what he dreams and that will work. He is leading, and he must be the one to say or ask around to be able to say that this should be. Because if he does not take a step, nothing is going to happen,” Aka said.
“Nobody is going to push him. So all I say to him is that, as much as I have, I got in the position, he should also strive to take us beyond where we are.”
Aka, an alumnus of King’s College Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. identified what he described as a culture of timidity and limited engagement among some African Scrabble administrators as a major obstacle to the sport’s growth, urging the new PANASA leadership to establish closer relationships with national federations and understand their operational challenges.
Drawing from his experience in African scrabble administration, he cited the absence of The Gambia from the just concluded African Scrabble Championship in Monrovia, Liberia despite its geographical proximity to the host country.
According to Aka, inquiries revealed that the country’s chairman had suffered an accident a month or two before the competition, raising questions about the organisation’s ability to maintain participation in the absence of a key official.
He argued that stronger engagement and guidance from PANASA could have helped the federation find alternative arrangements to send a team.
Aka also pointed to Zambia’s struggle to assemble the minimum five players required for country participation, while South Africa reportedly cited the high cost of attending competitions as a reason for its absence.
He maintained that these challenges could be addressed through better planning, early preparation and institutional support rather than being treated as insurmountable obstacles.
“I don’t see them as problems. I just see them as bad planning,” he said.
The former PANASA president recalled travelling to The Gambia in 2006 to persuade the country to participate in the African Scrabble Championship in Nigeria, highlighting the importance of direct engagement in bringing more nations into the continental competition.
He believes a similar approach, combined with sustained development programmes, could help PANASA improve participation and turn its ambition of wider African representation into reality.
Beyond strengthening existing associations, Aka called for deliberate efforts to establish and develop scrabble in North Africa, noting that the region has remained largely unrepresented in continental competitions for more than three decades.
He observed that PANASA’s constitution provides for North African representation within its rotational hosting arrangement, but the absence of strong scrabble activities in the region has continued to leave a significant gap in the association’s continental coverage.
Aka said there had been individuals from North African countries, including Algeria, who expressed interest in participating but would require guidance and support to develop the game in their respective countries.
He therefore urged Haruna Adamu who was elected unopposed at PANASA annual general meeting (AGM) in Monrovia to work towards identifying potential partners, engaging sports administrators and helping interested countries establish the structures needed to participate in African Scrabble activities.
However, Aka warned that achieving these objectives would be difficult without a functional and adequately organised secretariat to coordinate the association’s activities.
He stressed that the PANASA president could not shoulder the responsibility alone, calling for a dedicated team capable of maintaining regular communication with national federations, identifying their needs and implementing development initiatives.
“One man can’t do it alone. You need a team. So once your secretariat is up and doing, then what do you do for development? You engage, you ask, you talk to, even in countries where they don’t have, and you talk with the leadership in sports in such countries,” Aka explained.
He added that sustained engagement would enable PANASA to understand the specific challenges facing different countries and provide solutions tailored to their circumstances.
The way forward for Engineer Aka lies in building a stronger administrative structure that can move beyond organising continental championships to actively developing scrabble in countries where participation remains limited.
He believes that with effective leadership, a proactive secretariat and a commitment to helping national associations overcome their challenges, Adamu can build on the progress already made and extend Scrabble’s reach to more African countries.
SIGNED
Maxwell Kumoye
Spokesperson,
Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF).
01/11/2026
