Poised to preserve and ignite interest in our cultural heritage, Seaman’s Schnapps, a brand  from the stables of Grand Oak Limited, in conjunction with the Traditional Sports Federation of Nigeria (an arm of the Nigerian Sports Council), is lighting up the Nigerian television scene with Seaman’s National Ayo Championship billed to commence on select terrestrial and satellite TV stations in the country this weekend. This year’s Championship was held in the ancient city of Oyo.

The programme is expected to run for a quarter and would be anchored by Mr Anthony Odey of the Danz Odey Dance Group in Nigeria. It would be aired on Realstar TV on Startimes, NTA Awka, LTV Lagos, BCOS Ibadan, OSBC Oshogbo,  and Indepen-dent Television, Benin.

The Marketing Director, Grand Oak Limited, Aare Fatai Odesile, described Seaman’s Schnapps as a drink that is synonymous with culture and tradition thus, it is only right for the brand to support the Traditional Sports Federation of Nigeria in promoting the indige-nous Ayo competition.

“It is of common knowledge that today in many of Nigerian cities and even remote areas, many of the youth tend to prefer the foreign games which have no direct value to their lives. In as much as we are not totally against the western games, we feel that there is a need to balance the trend with our local games so that our cultural identity would not be totally lost,” he stated.

In order to create excitement around the competition, and showcase the Nigerian tradition, the programme is spiced with cultural dances and facts about our culture and tradition.. A traditional ruler would also appear as a special guest in each of the episodes to pray and offer libation before the commencement of each phase of the game.

Seaman’s National Ayo Championship is a competitive game show with winners in the male and female categories going home with mouth watering  money rewards.