Ekiti Tourism & Hospitality News

By Adebanji Adelusi

The Miss Nigeria International Pageant Competition 2022 ended on the evening of Saturday 1st October, 2022 in Ado-Ekiti with Ekiti State representative in the show coming out as Second Runner-up.

The social media space, within the week, was in-aundated with blow by blow account of various activities of different stages of the competition. Solicitation for votes also was everywhere on social media. The organizers had made it clear that the vote-count would determine the winners.

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The city of Ado-Ekiti, now gradually getting used to entertainment activities, was thrown into a frenzy as more stakeholders in the arts and entertainment businesses began to come into the city. Ado-Ekiti night life also came alive; notable Night Clubs hosted the contestants and the Group Managing Director of the Ekiti State investment management anchor, Fountain Holdings, Honourable Oscar Seyi Ayeleso, who strongly supported the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism to facilitate the hosting of the show in the State, gave the organizers and the queens a great treat.

Miss Nigeria International Pageant Competition is one of the most credible brands in the Beauty Pageantry business. Brendance & Crusader Limited, the organizer of the show has sustained the credibility of the brand through its transparency.

This reputation for transparency as well as general credibility in the selection of the top winners has actually helped the organization to secure support from most of its sponsor even when the show, for the first time, was to be taken outside Lagos State which is generally believed to be the amphitheatre of entertainment and showbiz in Nigeria.

Brendan Nsikak, the CEO of the company has led it to successfully host 11 editions so far and all the winners of each of such editions today can look back with gratitude for how well and how far the brand has been able to push them up to the pedestal of success.

Ekiti edition was the 12th edition and, to a large, extent unique in all ramifications. One of the most remarkable things that differentiate the 2022 edition from the previous editions was the way the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism through tampered with the regular templates of the competition to suit the State’s value code.

Ekiti State is a State within the Southwest Nigeria where women are treated with greatest care and matters affecting them handled with utmost caution. Thanks to the wife of the Executive Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi.

As a gender advocate, Erelu Fayemi has favoured women to enjoy certain rights and privileges. These rights have been integrated into the Laws of the State hence no woman can be shabbily treated or discriminated against.

It is already a common trite that only a man fore-doomed to spend some time in “Afao road” would shout at his wife, let alone give her an admonitory wack, no matter how little. Afao Road is the current location of the Ado-Ekiti Prison.

Ekiti Government is very sensitive to issues bothering on women welfare and issues relating to the well-being of the girl child.

In view of the fact that Erelu Bisi Fayemi believes that parading women for beauty contest is as good as commodifying womanhood, the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism therefore was at a crossroad:

The Ministry would not risk falling out of favour with Her Excellency who is the Ministry’s major benefactor and the Chairperson of the Technical Consultative Committee on Arts, Culture and Tourism that midwifed the birth of the Ministry during the first administration of Governor John Kayode Fayemi. The Ministry also would not shirk in its official mandate to create activities that would continue to attract traffic of tourists, investors as well as open up the State for more economic prospects aimed at diversifying the major revenue focus of the State.

As part of the conditions for the endorsement of the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism, the organizers of the event were however given a value framework which had to be complied with. The frameworks consisted of a list of dos and don’ts.

Among these was that the contestants would not be made to parade in skimpy dresses and pants that would expose their bodies. The show must be made as Family-Friendly as possible. It should also give primacy to the Nigerian culture to promote cultural re-awakening. All these precepts were accepted.

  According to Dr. Brendan Nsikak, Ekiti State was chosen to host based on its new reputation as the most tourism-vibrant State in Nigeria currently. The team moved to the State on the last Saturday of September. The Fountain Hotel Ado-Ekiti served as the camp which accommodated the thirteen (13) candidates representing 13 out the 36 States and the FCT.

Miss Nigeria International Pageant Competition is not just about the parade. There were various sessions and activities which include scheduled training, seminars and class. All these were organized to promote poise, comportment and class. Every queen must be able to face the camera, do presentations, perform well in interviews and be able to avoid some social faux pas as much as possible. All these form the basic reasons for the moulding activities which beauty contestants go through in their camps. The Management of Fountain Hotel availed the organizers the optimal use of their facilities for the activities.

Responding to questions on the rationale behind the event, Nsikak explained that the programme in its entirety was premised on the need to celebrate Nigeria, promote the richness in its diversity, its rich human resources and talents as well as promote national peace and harmony.

 The contestants and the organizing team went on a familiarization tour of Ekiti tourism landmarks such as the Ikogosi Warm Spring and Resort, the Arinta Waterfall, the Ikun Diary Farm and others. They had their official photo shoots at such places before the grand finale.

The theatre gallery of the massive Obafemi Awolowo Civic Center which was the venue of the grand finale of the event wore a look befitting the international show which it was scheduled to host that 1st day of October, 2022.

Still in the mood of celebration of the Nigeria’s Independence anniversary and the 26th year of Ekiti State creation, dignitaries, men and women of class, State Government functionaries and Ekiti development stakeholders graced the event.

It was a night of fun, a night of great musical performances with young and upcoming talents. The ladies were costumed in various dresses and styles using locally designed fabrics. It was a night of creativity. Each of the contestants had their costumiers and make-up artists.

Selecting the winners was a task made easy by technology, the camp activities assessment plus the final assessment of performance at the grand finale  cumulatively added up to forty percent (40%). The remaining sixty percent (60%) was from the online voting which had commenced earlier in the year and closed midway into the Grand finale.

The contest was hot and kin. All the queens displayed exceptional brilliance which showed that Nigeria is truly blessed with young and intelligent ladies who could stand up to effect the change we clamour for as a nation. Many of the ladies who were later not able to make the top list didn’t get relegated by sheer ineptitude but by their inability to mobilize enough votes.

At the end of the show, the FCT candidate Maduka Favour Ubianuju emerged with a staggering votes of over 19,000 to beat Enugu and Ekiti States as Miss Nigeria International (2022 Edition). Enugu candidate Ms Obichukwu Benita Ozioma came second (2nd) thereby emerging Miss Nigeria International, Classic. The Ekiti candidate Miss Deborah Oluwatobiloba Adebowale came third (3rd), she emerged Miss Nigeria International, Tourism.

Others include: Ms. Nigeria International, Culture                         Babalola, Deborah Opeyemi,   Ms. Nigeria International, Charismatic                 Akinyele, Oluwatumishe Elizabeth   Ms. Nigeria International, Top Model                   Echemazu, Augusta Onyinyechi Ms. Nigeria International, Planet                           Okolo Vanessa Chizzirim Ms. Nigeria International, Northern Region          Peters, Ja

The Miss Nigeria International Pageant Competition has come and gone yet some lessons have been learnt. One of such lessons is that Ekiti State can accommodate great entertainment innovations and be a great host to international shows without possibly compromising its values. Another lesson is that Ekiti people thirst for entertainment and recreation activities far better than the epicurean lifestyle which our traditional leisure activities are woven around.

Ekitourism observes that the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism through the ingenuity of its commissioner, Professor Rasaki Ojo Bakare, has expanded the frontiers of recreation by facilitating shows such as the Sunday/Sunday Variety Shows of the Ekiti State Performing Arts Company and this recently concluded Miss Nigeria. Prof Bakare has continued to work diligently towards the implementation of the arts, culture and tourism development master plan designed by the Technical Consultative Committee of which he was a member. Today, Ekiti State is among the best 3 States of the federation in Arts, Culture and Tourism. In 2020, Ekiti came 1st in International Arts Craft Expo (INAC) held in Abuja. Same year, Ekiti won 2nd overall best State in NAFEST in Jos. In 2021 hosted NAFEST and won as the Overall Best State. Similarly Ekiti is currently the Overall Best Tourism State. It should be noted that Ekiti had been tagged an absentee State in National programmes and blacklisted before the second coming of of Dr Kayode Fayemi as Governor. All the success recorded have been made possible through the sincere commitment of the Fayemi administration to revive the sector. Ojo Bakare has indeed justified the commitment and investment of government on the sector through his innovative interventions,

The trend is growing and the tempo rising, how would the growth be sustained? This remains the major question as the administration of Dr Kayode Fayemi’s winds down.

The neglect experienced by the arts, culture and tourism sector between 2014 and 2018 has been prevented with the election of Hon Biodun Oyebanji to ensure continuity and sustainability of progress. Ekiti culture and tourism stakeholders do hope that the achievements so far recorded in the sector would be sustained. They believe that whoever would steer the ship of the sector under the next administration should be someone with no less aspiration than to make the State an o entertainment hub, a place where talents grow and more showbiz stars are made.