Today, Thursday 21st December, 2017, a new Miss Nigeria will be crowned at the Eko Convention Centre. The pageant will be hosted by Bovi, Ebuka, Olive Emodi and Lala Akindoju. Also, legendary artiste 2face Idibia will be performing alongside other top artistes.
The journey to this year’s finale started in November when auditions were held in three cities – Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos, over a one-week period. The auditions started at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja on November 7 with an impressive turn out of contestants from the Northern region who showed up for a chance to become the next queen. George Okoro (photographer and Lifestyle Magazine publisher), Adama Indimi (CEO Reign by Adama Lashes), Ogugua Okonkwo (CEO Style Temple) and Andy Ogbechei (Creative Director, A-Squared Network) were the guest judges at this phase of the auditions, accompanied by Enyinne Owunwanne (CEO, Times Multimedia – organisers of the Miss Nigeria pageant).
Then the team moved to Port Harcourt on November 9 to receive contestants from the South-South/South-East region at the Echelon Heights Hotel, before heading to Lagos where the audition was held at the Times Multimedia Lagos Headquarters. A week later, the 37 semi-finalists were announced in a special Instagram Live Session, setting the stage for today’s grand finale.
Miss Nigeria was started by Daily Times Nigeria in 1957. Grace Oyelude won the maiden edition. The pageant continued to prosper until it was rocked with several scandals, the collision with military history and national turmoil, and the unfortunate decline of its parent brand, Daily Times. In 2005, Fidelis Anosike took over a decapitated Daily Times. He has since set his sights on rewriting the story of Miss Nigeria and graft in new chapters filled with hope, dignity, and value.
“This year, we were able to do a proper boot-camp; all the semi-finalists met with several prominent Nigerians, including the Director General of The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), who is the purpose-partner for this year’s pageant – the Miss Nigeria to be crowned will be the ambassador for human trafficking, she will spend her time and energy working with NAPTIP to raise awareness about the ills of human trafficking and try as much as possible to be able to contribute her own quota into ending the illicit trade. We also had a couple of top women personalities who went into the boot-camp to talk to the girls. Miss Nigeria has been fully restored to its original intent, which is to be a platform young female empowerment in Nigeria,” Mr. Anosike said.
Furthermore, he said “We want to use it to raise the voices of women. We believe that every Miss Nigeria will also take on these issues, raising the voices of women, especially as it relates to issues around the environment. Everybody has now come to understand that this is a national pageant not a beauty pageant.”
“Miss Nigeria focuses on issues that affect Nigerian women; she is an ambassador of culture, of purpose, of the environment. We want her to focus on the Nigerian people. It’s a national brand, not a beauty brand. It’s going to be a beautiful show. We are trying to make the show like the Oscars, so it will be a fusion of fashion, beauty and everything good about Nigeria. The contestants have to know about the states they are representing. We also want to use this help promote our history and heritage. We must be proud of who we are. Nigeria has come of age; we’ve seen what people have done in the music industry. That’s the kind of inspiration that we want to draw on.” he added.
