Beauty pageants at local or global level hold no interest for me. Many commentators have described it as “a debasement of womanhood”! Come to think of it, no woman is not beautiful or without a male admirer. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A woman needs not strip herself or indulge in cosmetic surgery to prove that she’s beautiful.
Nonetheless, Chidimma’s participation in this year’s Miss Universe contest held me spellbound up to this morning when I woke up to the news of her emergence as the first runner-up in the global contest in Mexico!
It didn’t matter to me what position she clinched but just to know that she contested after all the hate campaign waged by South Africa, her country of birth though born to a Nigerian father and Mozambican mother, and where she first indicated interest to participate in the global contest, and had emerged as a finalist in the SA chapter.
Until she emerged as one of the SA 12 finalists, nobody had grouse with her identity or nationality or even her successful modeling career as an undergraduate in an SA varsity. Suddenly she became an anathema because she posed a great challenge at winning the Miss Universe-SA version! It was then discovered that her mom had committed an “identity theft” for Chidimma at birth when she went to register her at the Home Affairs Department (HAD)! So the mom’s supposed sin, rather than the corruption that overwhelmed the HAD, had to be visited on the hapless toddler! Hate messages and threats from South Africans flew at Chidimma, and she had to withdraw from the SA contest.
When her dad’s country, Nigeria, via the Silverbird Group, oorganisers f the Nigerian version of the Miss Universe contest, offered her a lifeline to contest, the South Africans went on a smear campaign against her, and even voted a less fancied Miss Kwara contestant to block her chance. Not done, they pursued her to Mexico with a so-called petition to disqualify her. As destiny would have it, South Africa was denied participation in the global contest because of the self-withdrawal of their deaf contestant!
What the SAs had sought for Chidimma inevitably happened to them. Talk of poetic justice! Chidimma went on to emerge as Africa’s best and the second global best in Mexico!
The symbolism of all this is that Nigeria, which fought for SA to emerge from its dark days of apartheid, and is being rewarded with evil by the SAs, is shining above SA!
SA has threatened to cancel Chidimma’s ID and visa. She doesn’t need them. She’s already an official ambassador of her dad’s home state, Enugu, as conferred on her by the Governor. Her new global status will open doors for her to become a successful entrepreneur and international modeFor
For now, she may apply to transfer her varsity education from SA to Nigeria or anywhere abroad. I don’t feel safety for her in SA because of their meanness.
Felicitations to her and Nigerians! Her dramatic grass-to-grace story has momentarily united Nigerians irrespective of ethnoreligious affiliation.
