Nigeria's board game craze: why Nigerians rule Scrabble
Nigeria holds 2.87% of the world's people. It holds 15.6% of the top 1,000 Scrabble players. How does one country end up that good at a word game?
Nigeria has 33 of the world's top 100 Scrabble players
In November 2015, Wellington Jighere of Nigeria became the first African to win the English-language World Scrabble Championship. He beat England's Lewis Mackay four games to none in Perth, Australia.
Team Nigeria won the team title that year too. In November 2017 they kept it at the world championships in Nairobi.
The count of Nigerians in the top 100 has moved with each ranking: 23 in a 2016 report, 29 in 2017, 33 in a later one. The next scene's chart uses the 33.
Nigeria has more top-100 players than the next three countries put together
Players in the top 100 of the WESPA ratings. BusinessDay.
Nigeria is 2.87% of humanity, but 15.6% of the top 1,000
In January 2024, 156 of the world's top 1,000 Scrabble players were Nigerian. That is more than any other country, among players from 43 countries.
Nigeria has about 235 million people. That is 2.87% of the world. So Nigeria has roughly 5 times its fair share of top players.
The 5 times figure is our own division: 15.6 divided by 2.87 is about 5.4.
Share of the world, and share of the top 1,000
Sources: Intelpoint, from WESPA ratings, Jan 2024.
The love of board games is much older than Scrabble
Board games are played all over Nigeria. There is chess and Monopoly, and there are old local games like ayo.
Ayo is played by the Yoruba people. Two players sit at a wooden board with 12 holes, 6 on each side. Each hole starts with 4 seeds, so 48 seeds in all.
Children are taught ayo young as part of their heritage, and it is often played under a shady tree or on a veranda. Its exact age is debated.
An ayo board: 12 holes, 4 seeds each, 48 seeds
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Source: Horniman Museum, Ayo game.
About 4,000 Nigerians play Scrabble in clubs
No one can count how many Nigerians play board games. Games are more popular in the better-educated south.
Prince Anthony Ikolo, coach of the national Scrabble team, estimates 4,000 players in more than 100 clubs. Canada and the US together have about 2,000 to 2,500 members in 152 clubs.
This is a coach's estimate, not a census. Some clubs are just seven friends in a living room, and still count as national clubs.
Scrabble club players: Nigeria vs the US and Canada
Soft ends and hatching mark estimates. Source: Ikolo, quoted by Nigerian Parents.
The champions come from a few places, led by Warri
The Niger Delta states and Lagos are home to many of Nigeria's Scrabble champions. Wellington Jighere, the 2015 world champion, is tied to the oil-rich city of Warri, which is known for producing world-class players.
One qualifier list shows it. Of 26 players named for a world championship try-out, 14 came from just three clubs: Warri 6, Benin City 4 and Yenagoa 4.
Jighere himself says he grew up in Umolo, a clan of Olomu in Delta State, and moved later.
14 of 26 try-out places went to three clubs
Warri 6Benin City 4Yenagoa 4Others 12
Source: The Guardian Nigeria.
Real money and school teams make the games serious
On the national tournament circuit, cash prizes can reach $10,000. Prestigious schools have chess and Scrabble teams, and universities hold tournaments too.
Scrabble was made an official sport in Nigeria in the early 1990s. State associations have coaches on their payroll, so children can start young.
Funding is patchy. Coach Ikolo says government support has shrunk and tournaments now lean on rich individuals, a few companies and the clubs.
In 2016, over 1,100 Lagos students played Monopoly at once
Lagos got its own Monopoly board in 2012. In 2016 the state made the game an official sport.
That September, students packed a stadium in Surulere for an under-17 Monopoly championship. They broke the world record for most people playing Monopoly at once.
The size is disputed. Reports say 1,300 students, while the organiser's own count says 1,227 came and 1,181 played. The plan was 2,000. We did not find the record confirmed by Guinness World Records.
The goal was 2,000. The counts ranged from 1,181 to 1,300.
Sources: Marketing Edge, organiser's profile, Nerdist.
Nigerian players often pick the short word over the big score
Many credit Nigeria's Scrabble strength to playing short words, mostly five letters. Players call it "choking the board". It leaves the opponent few places to score.
In the 2015 final, Jighere played REPAIR for 30 points. A reported alternative, PEREIRAS, was worth 86 with a 50-point bonus. He kept an "e" for the next turn instead.
Some call this defensive. Coach Ikolo pushes back: protect your home first, then decide how to pressure your opponent. He says Nigerians know the long words too.
One move in the 2015 final: 30 points taken, 86 left on the table
Sources: NPR, MetaFilter, quoting a 2016 report.
The board is a place to win, and to escape the wahala
Board games are mostly a middle-class pastime. Ludo and draughts are also popular with people who had less schooling.
Nigeria's unofficial motto is "Naija no dey carry last", roughly "Nigerians strive to finish first". Many players say parents pushed them toward "IQ building" during long holidays and evenings without power.
Wahala means trouble or stress. Traffic jams, a corrupt policeman, the cost of fuel for the family generator. For an hour, a board game lets people think about something else. Monopoly lets them dream of owning the street.
These reasons come from what players and writers say. No study has measured them.
Same city, two worlds: the jam outside, the board inside.
The whole story in four numbers
of the world's top 100 Scrabble players are Nigerian
WESPA ratings, via BusinessDayof the top 1,000, from 2.87% of the world's people
WESPA, Jan 2024; Intelpointclub Scrabble players, by a coach's estimate
Ikolotop cash prizes on the national circuit
Quartz, WESPA