Beauty Pageantry In Anambra State And It's Devastating Complexities, The Way Forward

It is no longer news that our cultural heritage and values are being eroded and constantly flushed down the drains by the once viable institutions set to promote them. One must be either blind to realities or indifferent to glaring facts to say that the adverse effects of Pageants in Anambra state are not in any way posing harm to the beautiful future of our cultural and moral values.

Voices have been raised from different corners as to these antagonistic effects on our State, and these voices would not tune down their volumes or fade out, until relevant authorities wake from their snoring slumber to salvage the already dicey and precarious situation.

It would be very unwise, and grossly out of place to state that the initiators of the pageant idea and the fore bearers of the initiative had ills in mind as they thought out the plan. Of course, they had the promotion of cultural values in mind, and saw Pageants as a form of inculcating discipline,decency, values, and strong independent wills on the contestants, but it highly appalling that these institution that has produced viable women in the highest echelons of decision in Nigeria has been bastardized.

The likes of Bianca Ojukwu rose from being the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria to being the first African to win Miss Intercontinental in 1989, yet served the country in strong political capacities, which included but are not limited to, serving as an Ambassador to Ghana and Spain and becoming Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, thus these feats state in clear facts that pageants were promoting values until they were hijacked by gluttons who cared more about the money they made than the values they created.

In a space of months, various scandals have trailed the Pageant Institution, creating a shrink image of the state at the International level, National level and it must be clear to state that these scandals are the ones that were lucky enough to hit our timelines and pages of the Newspapers, as thousands of scandals are being swept under the carpets, probably because the crime has been perpetuated over time that even the victims had begun seeing them as norms that would always happen in the event of any pageant.

It is also worthy to note the adverse effects of these nefarious activities being peddled in the guise of pageantry, as most pimps use pageantry as a way to pimp our young girls to randy men. This act on its own poses a strong threat to the Sickle Cell Campaign, as possibilities are high that more children living with the disorder are raised from these illicit sexual activities, since NO ONE CARES ABOUT GENOTYPE TEST DURING PIMPING. These kids grow up to be treated like filth, since they are assumed to be results of mistakes, thereby leaving them at the mercy of the society even at their precarious state of health.

It is high time that we rose to the crying situation to salvage our moral values, by putting a stop to the leaches that has stung so hard on the roots of our heritage, sucking us dry. A STOP should be placed on Pageants in Anambra State, and relevant authorities like the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Women Affairs should look deep into the processes of these events, to ensure that when the ban is lifted, these events passes through the right channels of scrutiny before they are approved. A Recent independent investigation also revealed that the State Government Revenue was highly Sabotaged on the fact that these pageant groups were never registered with the Government through the Women Affairs Ministry for their Legitimate Operations, thereby introducing our younger generation on how to Evade the Payment of their Taxes as well as Short Cut to Success and Greatness without an Exemplified Hardwork.

However, our Government should also go back to promoting such like competitions in the Education sector, as it quite baffles as to how we place much importance on beauty and not Skills/Talents or Academic Competitions.

During the Time of the Last Administration in Anambra State, such like competitions were seen in the Education sector, where kings and queens are crowned based on their prowess in various fields of learning. A reinvention of these competitions in our Education sector would go a long way in salvaging our values and saving the state from a gross image decay.

TIME TO ACT IS NOW!
We Must Revitalize the Beauty of Our Education
We Must Reinvigorate the Status of Our Lost Glory
We Must Reclaim Our Pride of Academic and Moral Excellence

We Must Say No to the Moral Corruption which is the Biggest Monster that Has been Adopting our Children which is our most valuable Treasure in Life.

AISHA EDWARDS
DIRECTOR
CENTER FOR MORAL MENTORSHIP.