Nigeria Tops World Scrabble Rankings in 2025

Nigeria just claimed the title of world's best Scrabble nation in 2025, and one economist believes this love of language could be the key to healing deep divisions.

'Tope Fasua, a Nigerian economist and lifelong Scrabble enthusiast, grew up challenging friends with Chambers Dictionary, fascinated by the etymology sections that trace where words come from. Those word origins told him stories about how people connected, traded, and borrowed from each other across centuries.

Now he's proposing something ambitious: a nationwide study of word origins across Nigeria's hundreds of languages to prove the country's ethnic groups share more than they realize. Just as English connects to French, Latin, and German through centuries of interaction, Nigerian languages blend into each other through trade, marriage, and cultural exchange that predates modern borders.

The timing matters. At a recent African Economists Conference in Abidjan, a colleague from Ghana pointed out that Ghanaians don't obsess over tribal differences the way Nigerians do. In northern Ghana, Hausa speakers like President John Mahama live as Christians and Muslims within the same families, focusing on what unites rather than divides them.

Fasua argues that Nigeria's independence came too easily, without the unifying struggle that forged stronger national identities in Kenya, Zimbabwe, or South Africa. Add oil wealth that bred superiority complexes, followed by coups and civil war, and the country became more aware of differences than similarities.

Social media has made it worse, turning half-educated voices into influencers who profit from division. The recent "Olodo Uprising" celebrates wealthy people mocking educated ones, suggesting money matters more than knowledge or unity.

The Bright Side

But language could be the bridge back. When Fasua plays Scrabble today, he sees possibility in every word. The game requires players to build on what others have placed, connecting letters into new meanings. It's a perfect metaphor for what Nigeria could become.

Scholarly work already exists comparing languages between neighboring kingdoms or ethnic groups. What's missing is the comprehensive pan-Nigerian study that could map centuries of linguistic borrowing and shared vocabulary across all regions, proving through etymology what politics has tried to erase: that Nigeria's people have been connected far longer than they've been divided.

The country's rise to Scrabble dominance, especially strong in the Delta and Edo regions, shows Nigerians already celebrate their facility with language. Turning that passion toward understanding their own linguistic heritage could transform how they see each other.

In a globalized world where Nigerians often become their own worst critics abroad, rediscovering shared roots through language study offers something rare: evidence-based hope for unity.