From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
When the second edition of the premier beauty pageant in the North holds on October 19, 2024. lovers of entertainment in Jos, the Plateau state capital, North Central states and other parts of the country have been guaranteed an awesome experience.
In a chat with Sunday Siun, the initiator of the pageant and Chief Executive of DanHausawa, Samaila Adoyi Ogwuche, who is a Kaduna-based entertainment industry executive and promoter of the premier Northern beauty pageant described Miss Naija as a premier different entity, which he started to help young people.
“We started it in 2023, to see how we can support young people. At the time I started it, there was no platform to support young people. I started putting up programmes to help young people. I held a reach-out and a concert in the prison for four years. I started a Hausa programme to enable young female models to showcase their talents in 2016.
“Last year we started Miss Naija because up here, in the north, we don’t have beauty queens that can contest on the international level. Sometimes when they audition for pageants in the South, they are not often chosen. We decided to start something that can offer young northern women an opportunity to also represent the country. We held the first edition last year in Jos as a trial run.”
Giving further explanations about the pageant at inception, he said that about 30 ladies made it to the camp. The winner got N2 million while the others got consolation prices.
“This year we are still going to do it in Jos on 19th October. The winner will represent Nigeria internationally in 2025. The winner will also go home with N3 million, a car and a driver. That is our way of empowering young women. We have asked sponsors to give them scholarships. We have had some interesting people show interest. The theme for this year is ‘Happy Woman’. My organisation, DanHausawa Media, is the sponsor, and we will also employ two winners to work with us. Miss Naija is a beauty pageant for women. We are trying our best to support the young people to reap the gains of their talents,” Ogwuche said.
