Aside my occasional late night secret viewing of Fashion TV (hope Madam isn't reading this O!) I really don't give a damn about fashion shows and pageants, generally. Reason: Those who emerge as "most beautiful" or "Beauty Queens" are not necessarily the best because not all the beautiful women in the locality of the pageant participate. Understood? Ok, cool.
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| Winners of Silverbird Mother Daughter Pageant Nigeria |
However, when I was told by a friend about the Silverbird Mother Daughter Pageant, and I read up on the modalities and objectives, out of curiosity, I decided to follow it. It turned out to be quite an exciting experience. Watching mother-daughter dynamics captured in the show not only highlighted the fine points of grooming young girls into women, it reminded me of my mother and her daughters, my younger sisters, back in the days. I was hooked on the show, like I was hooked on the activities of Chief Zebrudaya and co in New Masquerade in those good old days.
So, like a regular drunk, I rushed home to watch the show on TV and in the process I decided on a contestant: Team4 or Team Rubi. I don't want to dwell on the incredible talents, the wonderful dynamics and unbelievable heroics of that team. I'm madly in love with Mom Rubi's waist-length NATURAL dreadlocks! Anyways, I voted, and voted and rooted for them. Then, came the finals and, expectedly, TeamRubi made it to the final 5 and was, to me, set to clinch the diadem. I was abso-fucking-lutely sure of my contestants.
My "flabber" was, therefore, totally "gasted" when from out of the blues, a sixth team, Team AngieGift was introduced right there and then at the finals and went on to emerge winners of the inaugural Mother Daughter Pageant Nigeria (MDPN) by Silverbird. The Calabar International Conference Centre (CICC) venue of the final show was in absolute shock over what was seen as a travesty of justice. It took a lot of restraint for me not to smash my television. (Lailai! Smash a 68" Samsung? I never craze yet!!!) But suffice it to say I was extremely disappointed and so badly let down.
An otherwise brilliant initiative by an organization reputed for showbiz founded by the Commonsense Senator, Mr. Ben Murray Bruce, had been messed up. My fledgling interest in pageants has been literally killed in the womb. And again, Nigeria has been painted black in the eyes of the world.
There are some questions begging for answers here: What really happened? Who authorized the last-minute change of rules? How come a sixth finalist was introduced suddenly? Why would that sixth contestant emerge winner? Why? Diariz God O! Dis pageants they are sharing...Chai!
Seriously, the credibility of the MDPN has been brought to serious question and the organizers, whose integrity has now been pooh-poohed sure have some explaining to do. The effort made by the Special Guest of Honour, Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade, came too little too late. While some people, who were present said he too was shocked, some people, trust Nigerians, say he it was who manipulated the outcome to favor his "candidate". Well, I don't know, but his N1m to all the other five finalists (the winner got N2m) is clearly an after-thought, which hasn't done much to vitiate the sense of loss and disappointment of the other contestants, particularly TeamRubi, whom most people voted for and were cocksure would win the pageant.
Hopefully, someone, and not the least Sen. Ben Bruce, would right the wrong here. In this season of CHANGE, we must get things right and be seen to have gotten things right.
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