Tongues have been wagging ever since the pageant organizers crowned Miss Taraba, Sylvia Nduka as winner of the most respected beauty pageant in the country. Critics have cried out, fans have spoken up, the online and offline media have fueled several speculations; with contestants and some judges reportedly suggesting that there is a strong possibility of bribery, Corruption and favouritism.
In what can be described as the ‘worst and least popular’ MBGN pageant in recent years, it was quite a shock for viewers of the most respected beauty pageant in the country to watch the proceedings of the night eventually turn out the way it did.
It was the last stage of the pageant as the last 15 finalists were cut down to the top 5 and the question and answer session came on. Show hosts Chris Okenwa and Michelle Dede then began asking the last five standing questions (Miss Gombe, Enugu, Lagos, Taraba, and Bayelsa). The first question was directed to Miss Taraba. She bungled the answer, stuttering and mumbling. Fans jeered and booed on Twitter and in the hall. The crowd roared in laughter as everybody wondered how on earth she had made it that far in the competition. Michelle who asked her the question calmed the crowd and asked her again. She mumbled something and the audience roared with more laughter…At this point even Miss Taraba herself knew that her grammatical blunder had cost her the title. The others answered their own question pretty well, Miss Lagos, Ndam Grace was impeccable with her speech and Miss Enugu – Obioma Isiwu‘s speech brought tears to the eyes as she thanked her mother for the support. So it was quite a shock to hear Silverbird Group VP Guy Murray-Bruce announce that Miss Taraba who just a few minutes before had committed a horrible blunder on live TV was the MBGN 2011 winner. To her bewilderment (everybody could even see the shock on her face); she stepped up and received her crown. Now people who had followed the MBGN pageant live on TV were really upset and didn’t intend to hide their thoughts as they took to different social media platforms most especially the micro blogging site Twitter to rain verbal abuses on both the organizers and the newly crowned queen herself! ‘I’m trully embarrassed. The girl who couldn’t express herself in good english is d most beautiful girl in Nig. I’ve lost all respect for MBGN‘, popular blogger Linda Ikeji tweeted through her @lindaikeji handle. ‘MBGN Top5 #epicfail. That’s what happens when businessmen are judges‘, she continued.
‘Nothing could have been more choreographed. Not inspiring at all. In the end, the only person who fluffed her lines won. #MBGN‘, said activist Amara Nwakpa (@bubusn).
Other comments quickly surfaced, reaching thousands, and causing ‘Taraba’ to trend globally on Twitter. No one was happy, and they poured out their feelings.
Another wrote, ‘I’m in shock, she didn’t even answer the question‘
An angry viewer tweeted, ‘Ojoro don enter am o! Worst MBGN ever’
Before long, a spoof account was created (@MissTarabaMBGN) and the handle kept tweeting grammatical blunders. It wasn’t long until #Taraba and #MBGN started trending…worldwide.
One would wonder how on earth the result would pan out the way it did. We could only look up to the judges for an explanation. The MBGN programme brochure suggests that there were nine judges; Nollywood actress Susan Peters, Prince Tonye T.J.T Princewill, Ms. Nike Adegoke, Mr. Femi Solebo, Mr. Bankola Animashaun, Ms. Caline Chagoury and Mr. George Uboh. The remaining two judges Mr. Chris Ndulue and Genevieve Nnaji were absent. On speaking with Genevieve’s rep in the UK – Vanessa Amadi, she claimed that the Nollywood star was approached but she turned the position down stating that she was not going to be available and that they were quite surprised to hear she was still included.
Only 24 hours after the pageant, compassnewspaper.com reported that some judges (who prefer to stay anonymous) have also complained that the name that was announced was not that of the person they had picked as the winner. According to Compass Newspaper, Miss Bayelsa, Gemal Sophie, is who the judges claimed to have picked on their cards.
In the Compass article, they also complained that the organisers did not follow the list that was given to them, when the 34 contestants were reduced to the final 15.
Also very evident, and disturbing, is the issue of age discrepancy. A video clip recorded by the Silverbird crew, which shows the contestants introduce themselves and urge their fans to vote for them was aired on TV and uploaded online. In this video, ages of the contestants don’t correlate with the ages given in the brochure. Ms Sylvia Nduka who was listed as 20 years old in the pageant brochure said she was 23 in the video clip. There were more birth year errors.
By winning the pageant, Miss Taraba Sylvia Nduka went home with N3 million and a brand new Hyundai Accent car, 2010 edition.
Speaking with Nigerian Entertainment Today, the Marketing manager and member of the organising committee of the pageant Abimbola Ayorinde, told us ‘There is always something to be said, the public should try to understand that these girls went through rigorous training, they did their makeup and all other preps by themselves before we took over‘
On Miss Taraba winning, she said ‘Everybody will always have something to say when someone wins. Even when Agbani Darego won in 2001, people talked. We should understand that people who supported other contestants that didn’t win won’t be necessarily happy with the results. And as for Miss Taraba goofing her questions, it’s just a case of her being nervous, I spoke with her at the after party of the pageant and she was quite eloquent‘
When asked about the age mix-ups, Ayorinde explained ‘It must be production error, if you want a copy of each of the contestants’ birth certificate, we can provide it as form of proof‘.source: http://www.thenetng.com
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