Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

Leading theatre practitioners gathered at the Banquet Hall of the National Theatre, Lagos to chart a new roadmap to reposition the National Troupe of Nigeria, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME. 

The hall was silent. All was set for the stakeholders’ forum organised by the National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN).  Venue was the Banquet Hall of the National Theatre, Lagos. The focus was how the troupe can become more proactive and productive.

“I hope you will step up efforts at making the National Troupe of Nigeria a bigger success story,” began the Chairman of the Governing Board of the National Theatre/National Troupe of Nigeria, Chief Markus Ishaya. “And I also hope that you will not betray the confidence repose in you. You need to better the record of the immediate past Artistic Director, Mr Martins Adaji. Note that you cannot do it alone. Everybody in the troupe has a role to play, and you should take everybody as a stakeholder. Both you and General Manager of National Theatre should work together for good.”

That counsel by Chief Ishaya to the new NTN Artistic Director, Mr Akin Adejuwon, set the tone that morning at the forum.

Ishaya recalled that his experience in the public service has shown that inadequate stakeholders’ engagement and involvement is one of the most common reasons programmes and projects fail. “So those who want to succeed always make effort to encourage broad and active stakeholders’ engagement in the planning, monitoring and evaluation process of their programmes,” he added.

The forum, which attracted leading theatre arts practitioners such as Prof Duro Oni, Sir Peter Badejo, Ben Tomoloju, Ali Mahmoud-Balogun, Oba Sonuga, Prof. Sunday Ododo, Prof. Gbemi Remi Adeoti, Mrs Bridget Yerima, Larry Williams, Kabir Yusuf, Efe Eboigbe and Steve James had a keynoter, Head, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Maiduguri, Prof Sunday Ododo who spoke on The Performative Expression In A Conflict Environment. The interactive forum was not all about talks as there were drama performances by Crown Troupe of Nigeria, National Troupe of Nigeria (Ajoyo) and the Footprint of Africa.

Prof Ododo said that troupe’s performative expression for conflict resolution and transformation must address the structural injustice and structural oppression that underlie people’s misery and powerlessness in Nigeria. He observed that underlining all these issues are the nagging questions of ethical decay, social injustice, inequality and false sense of nationalism. All these questions, he said, require urgent attention if contemporary Nigeria is to be reoriented with fair sense of socio-political relationships, distribution of national resources and reward system by all levels of government in Nigeria.

He noted that beyond the present stakeholders’ forum, NTN should bring experts in theatre for development and conflict transformation to articulate for NTN a realistic and result-oriented blueprint of action. According to Prof. Ododo, performative expression for conflict resolution is not the conventional type the artistes of NTN are used to because it has its modus operandi. He added that workshops must be organised to train the artists who will act as change agents who must be motivated too and emboldened to key into their new role as change agents.

“For effective result, constitute inter-professional facilitator teams consisting of artists and peace activists or conflict managers. Mixed teams of artists and peace activists offer a lot of potential for generating practices which emphasise reflective, relational and practical knowledge by employing artistic means in their contribution to conflict transformation/resolution.

Conflict transformation provides a set of modes of conduct, tools and experience based knowledge on how to intervene in a conflict system to calm tensions and create trust and safety. For such inter-professional collaboration, it might be meaningful to conceptualise conflict transformation not simply as particular skills and techniques, but more as an “art of relationship-building”, which can be inserted into the artistic group process and production,” Prof. Ododo said.

On the expected relationship between Nigerians and the troupe, he said that NTN in all her activities should keep faith with the Nigerians and should be careful not to become a propagandist agency for government. ‘Wherever the government is doing well, tell us; wherever they are failing, tell them; if they refuse to listen and change, tell us. NTN should also be run as a laboratory of artistic experimentation that should yield something new for the Nigerian theatre and indeed the world theatre,” he stressed.

He also urged NTN to return to mobile open auditions for the recruitment of artists in order to boost confidence in its recruitment process. “It should maintain linkages with all theatre arts departments in Nigeria; engage staff students in training workshops, internship and also put in place a reward system for deserving student participant annually. Ditto too, for practitioners. NTN should begin to develop performances in Nigerian languages and through them connect with grassroots indigenous artistes. Creative workshops for children should also be developed to competitive level involving schools across the country in order to stimulate and explode the creative potentials of our children. This way, the scope of participation outside Lagos and those who can afford to register for the workshop would have been expanded,” he said.

Prof. Ododo who lamented the pro-government programmes of NTN noted that until the NTN begin to package productions that genuinely interrogate the socio-political system, leadership and followership, national questions and integration, denied freedom and injustice in the country, and presented to the generality of Nigerians, NTN would be failing in her mandate to ‘ensure that productions of the Troupe are geared towards national aspirations’.

Artistic Director, National Troupe of Nigeria, Mr Akin Adejuwon assured the gathering that his mission at the group is to reinvigorate and reposition the National Troupe for effective and efficient performing arts service delivery. “We shall intensify efforts aimed at popularising the rich cultural heritage of this great country through performances that are of high artistic standard. We are poised, even though we are often being stretched to the limits due to limited resources, to execute productions as and   when due. We are also to be theatrically responsive to pressing national and international issues and to provide a vibrant forum for citizens to brainstorm and re-generate topical issues on the performing arts.

“To this effect, we intend to direct our products towards identifiable major clients, the Federal Government. As Ministries, Departments and Agencies), the private sector, and the general public;  an expansion of this dovetails into the key arm of the Federal Government, the Armed Forces.  The present security situation in the country brings the import of this arm of government to the fore.  We will represent this importance through our performative expressions and promote same. Interestingly, we have just been invited to perform at the Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration 2014. I consider this performance by the National Troupe a unique one.

Continuing, he said: “Apart from being the first foot forward within my vision of making the Troupe current and relevant in the Nigerian scheme of things, I see the performance which is billed to take place at the Aso Rock, Presidential Villa, Banquet Hall before a select audience of the President, his family and all the Service Chiefs, as a way of deploying “The Performative Expression in a Conflict Environment”, which instructively is the theme of the keynote speech at this stakeholders forum and the broad theme of the National Troupe’s activities for the season.

“We will send out our performing troupes on national tours with educative and entertaining products for efficient governmental advocacy and information dissemination.  The aim is also to revive the foundational nucleus of the National Troupe, which is that of a travelling troupe. We intend to begin this revival project with a three-state tour scheduled for this month.”

He disclosed that NTN would organise two festivals; the Domestic Festival of Performing Arts, and the Abuja International Festival of Performing Arts. The maiden edition of DOFEPA (Domestic Festival of Performing Arts), is planned for 2015 while subsequent editions will be rotated among the states. The Abuja International Festival of Performing Arts (AIFEPA) will have its first outing in Abuja in 2016. According to him, the National Troupe of Nigeria will also sustain the hosting of the Annual Public Lecture and Play Reading Series which has helped to bridge the gap between theatre practice and dialectics.

Ali Mazrui is really a huge tree that prominently occupies a huge forest of equally huge trees. When such trees are uprooted from the forest, it is a great loss beyond recompense. The Iroko isn’t just any tree; it has a definitive presence. Nelson Mandela just exited the African forest, and that absence troubled our collective conscience as a people; now we lament Mazrui just like we did when Chinua Achebe took a bow. Dare we raise a dirge? What does these departures portends for Africa? This may be a dilemma, but I call to mind a double consolation. In this regard, Henry Vaughan’s poem comes to mind:

They are all gone into the world of light,

And I alone sit lingering here;

Their very memory is fair and bright,

And my sad thoughts doth clear.

Mazrui’s influence suffuses my intellectual and personal development as an individual. I am highly favoured to have encountered this great son of Africa, first as a student of politics, and later in discourse, not only in print but also in at least one personal correspondence. In the first place, I count him as one of my intellectual companions through the tough but enlightening maturation of my intellect. These were intellectual forebears who ensured that we didn’t travel alone through the Sisyphean struggles and existential realities of life and career. There are many others, too many to checklist. There were for me, the likes of Martin Luther of the Reformation who gave me in junior secondary the concept of reform as a tool for social reconstruction which defined as intellectual focus so early. Others would include in no particular order, Thomas More, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Karl Popper, Rudyard Kipling, T. S. Elliot, Mahatma Gandhi, John Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte, George Bernard Shaw, C. P. Snow, Nelson Mandela, Pandit Nehru, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Thomas Paine, Cervantes, J. J. Rousseau, Francis Bacon, William Shakespeare, Wole Soyinka, Simeon Adebo, Claude Ake and so on.

Prof Mazrui’s triple heritage thesis—as well as Peter Ekeh’s two publics – contributed immensely to my understanding of the convoluted dynamics of the postcolonial African society of which Nigeria is a critical manifestation. The severe dysfunctions of the Nigerian civil service, for instance, are a pointer to how the predicament of an unharnessed triple heritage constitutes a disservice to the progress of the Nigerian state. Thus, I am forced to keep revisiting the thesis over and over again in my position as an expert-insider. In my article ‘Ali Mazrui and the Challenge of Africa’s Triple Heritage,’ I raised fundamental questions arising from the incongruous mix of the three elements of our historical experience: First, why is it impossible for people, otherwise distinguished by ethnic, cultural and religious affiliations, to live peacefully together, in spite of the political motives that is the undercurrent of terrorism? If it is, in what sense then would that hope not be truncated by an absolute conception of faith that necessarily exclude the others from religious, and national, communion? What role does self-understanding play in our attempts to come to term with our differences and similarities? How does the knowledge of the Infinite moderate our conscience in the world where other consciences inhabit?

It was therefore a huge surprise to me when I got an unexpected call from the sturdy Iroko himself to commend my little effort at making sense of our collective trouble. Who would have thought that Mwalimu Mazrui, of all people, would notice a Lilliputian me, of all people! I was totally dumbfounded by the admission that he had been following with interest my several narratives on the contributions of intellectual compatriots in Nigeria.

Africa’s future is inextricably tied to its triple historical heritage. Our modern experience must take off from that fundamental core of diversity. For Africa, diversity isn’t just a slogan; it is a critical reality in terms of cultures, languages, and even colonial experiences. For that diversity to spice up our progressive development as a continent, for us to truly rise beyond our predicament, we urgently need to concoct our otherwise virulent diversity into a serious and aromatic recipe. This is essentially what Prof Mazrui dedicated his entire life and prodigious intellect to doing. Now, that definitive presence on the African and global political science and cultural studies firmament has departed. He fought a good fight of the intellect—he came, he saw and he thought. Prof Ali Al’amin Mazrui – professor, global intellectual, political analyst, and Africana scholar—didn’t just die; he lived!

Our consolation over these mighty iconic figures is that we are permitted to continue speaking about them in the present tense. They still have a lot to say to Africa’s present predicament in death as much as they did in life. Nwalimu Mazrui was a prodigious scholar with an equally seminal intellect. And he dedicated everything to Africa; he dedicated everything to an understanding of how Africa can successfully convert its negative inheritance of socio-political and economic anomie to a positive capital of genuine liberation and development. In recent times, there has been a widespread and triumphal exaltation of Africa Rising, especially in terms of economic manifestations which, for the economists, translates into several positive macroeconomic signifiers which supposedly spell a better future for Africa. I wonder what Prof. Mazrui would have thought of ‘Africa Rising.’ I suspect, however, that he would have, on the one hand, been gratified that Africa is coming into reckoning after ages of subjugation and negative global press. But on the other hand, he would have rejected any form of superficial theorising that doesn’t see the wood for the trees. Thabo Mbeki once said that the twenty-first century is Africa’s century; Mazrui disagrees. Why isn’t this our best century in spite of growing and glowing macroeconomic achievements? A simple answer would be that we are still far off from a serious exploitation of Africa’s heritage. Africa has not yet transformed its triple heritage into a platform for continental distinctiveness. All our supposed achievements as a continent has been happening to us rather than as a result of our collective resolve.

A starting point for a genuine liberation of Africa, from Mazrui’s perspective, would be a critical understanding of how this triple heritage past can speak to a modern African future free of ethnic jingoism, gender chauvinism, religious fundamentalism and economic subservience. Mazrui will definitely agree with the US writer, Gayatri Spivak, that ‘If only enlightenment is granted, freedom is almost sure to follow.’ Enlightenment in this context comes from an understanding of our triple heritage but more importantly, how that heritage can fashion an enlarged modern consciousness that could inform Africa’s postcolonial recovery and partnership.

I know what Mazrui is talking about. Like him, I can equally be regarded as a ‘walking triple heritage.’ I grew up at a cultural juncture where the three critical elements of Euro-Christian, Islamic and indigenous cultural influences converged. The indigenous cultural space was a moderating influence garnered from its several values that encouraged love and hospitality.

What is the significance of Mazrui in the present tense? We have an entire body of Mazruiana collections that essentially are a legacy to how Africans can begin to redefine themselves in a contemporary world of neoliberal globalisation when they have adequately liberated themselves from colonial and postcolonial mental blocks. Marcus Garvey once proclaimed that all emancipation is from within. Prof Mazrui has left us a legacy that insists that we look deep into our historical reality for the clues to our own liberation.

•Dr Olaopa is a Permanent Secretary with the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology Abuja. Nigeria

Temitayo Fadunsin’s name may not ring a bell among top Nollywood movie stars. But, she is a regular face among the Yoruba actors, having acted alongside artistes such as Iya Rainbow, Sola Sobowale, Ayo Badmus and Lere Paimo. The actress, producer and make-up artist is working on her new movie, Asabi Alakada, due for release soon. She speaks with Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME on her passion for acting, her love for stage drama and challenges of producing her new movie, among other issues. 

TWELVE years ago, Temitayo Fadunsin encountered Ayo Badmus, a renowned Yoruba actor. That encounter became the turning point in her acting career. Until that encounter in 2002, young Fadunsin had featured in many drama performances at school and at the Methodist Church, Odi-Olowo, in Lagos. She grew up as a little girl with strong passion for drama, which was also influenced by her love for one of Nigeria’s renowned actresses, Idowu Philips aka Iya Rainbow. Apart from acting, she is also into make-up, head gear tying, among others.

Fadunsin, who studied Business Administration at the Lagos State Polytechnic, Lagos, cut her teeth in acting career during her stint with Amao Ajiboye (Big Abbas) where she learnt the rudiments of acting and make-up.  Recalling her journey into the acting world, she said: “In fact, Ayo Badmus brought me into acting in 2002. I have a strong passion for acting and it is my dream. So, meeting Ayo Badmus was like a dream come true. And when I told him I have interest in acting, he handed me over to Alaran another notable Yoruba actor. I later went to Big Abbas where I learnt acting and make-up. That was in 2008. Muftau Oladokun (Alaran) taught me acting for 4 years and during which I featured in Eleko Orun Npolowo by……” she said.

Despite her interest in movie, Fadunsin’s heart is on the stage because professionally, ‘the stage real platform where acting is rooted and nurtured.’ According to her, the big plus for movie (Nollywood) is that it gives the artistes a window to be known and become popular because of the mass audience appeal.

She also acted in Sisi Nurse produced by Queen Aford, and Abegbepe produced by Olufunmilayo Omiyinka, Peju Ijaya produced by Bola…..

In 2003, Fadunsin produced her first movie Okunrin O jebi marketed by Alleluya Ventures. The movie featured known stars such as Lere Paimo, Sola Sobowale, Yemi Solade, Iya Rainbow, Ogun Majek (Mr. Lecturer), Ayo Badmus among others.

Her new movie, Asabi Alakada, is about a young girl who has nothing but pretends to be a big girl. She is not only arrogant but a liar and she ended up having nothing to show for all the fake life. Among lead actors are Liad Bakare, Funjke Eti, Ayo Badmus, Tayo Durojaiye, Fausat Balogun, and Saheed Osupa, the fuji musician.

On the challenges faced while producing the new movie, she said: “I experienced lots of challenges producing the new movie unlike the first one. Location choice and supports were among the challenges I faced. But thank God all that have passed and the movie will be ready for release soon.”

Award-winning poet Chijioke Amu-Nnadi has set a tall ambition for himself.

The author of Pilgrim’s Passage is set to publish seven volumes of poetry in the next few months.

At the same time, in the past  few weeks, Amu-Nnadi has been sharing his poetry experience in the United States where he is on a visit to the Centre for Black Literature at Medgar Eva College, New York, to which he was invited to have an interface with students.

According to the Port-Harcourt, Rivers State-based poet, the experience has been an interesting romance with poetry.

From classrooms to some cultural joints, Amu-Nnadi, who went to the US through Germany where he attended the Frankfurt Book Fair, has been speaking on his poetry and African literature. According to him, one of the most exciting aspects of his journey is the positive response his works are attracting.

For Amu-Nnadi, who was a finalist at last year’s NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, the move to publish seven poetry volumes has been rough but satisfying.

“It was tough, putting them together, but the experience has been wholly gratifying. Some friends have asked why I have been quiet, especially on Facebook. I have been quite busy, putting together, for printing, seven books of poetry. Three are old books I am only reprinting, but which needed some retyping and re-editing, while three others are a selection of my poems along the themes of love, anguish and travels. And then there is the manuscript for a new book that would formally be published next year,” he said.

He does not see himself as a student of theories in the orthodox sense of it. Interestingly, the first poem he wrote began in his sleep.

Amu-Nnadi said: “Awakening, the threads of the Abiola dirge to Kudirat, came while I was asleep. I write poetry without punctuation and capital, not for any other reason than the fact that “life is a fragile metaphor, told with neither capital nor punctuation.” It is a train of unbreakable and uncontrollable motions and emotions. Its essence is not in the punctuations, but in the story itself that unfolds. I am constantly trying to improve my craft, so I am always looking for new opportunities for interaction, to catch up with what I always feel I have lost. That’s why, when I hold talks in schools, I always ask the children to read and to write. That’s the best way to grow.”

His vivid imagination as a writer was what earned him a spot at Celebrate Africa in honour of Eric Edwards, a collector of African artefacts, holding at the Medgar Evers College, where he would be giving a lecture on poetry.  According to the Chair of the English Department at the Centre for Black Literature, Prof Brenda Greene, Amu-Nnadi’s writing paints an in-depth picture of the complexity of the human existence.

Meanwhile Amu-Nnadi expressed delight over the whole experience, saying one of the most exciting aspects of his journey is the positive response his works are attracting. He said: “I read at the Celebrate Africa programme of Medgar Evers College last night. It was a surreal experience, especially seeing men and women, young and old, white and black, react with such excitement, joy and love that approached devotion. The experience brought them to laughter and tears. It was scary and uplifting all at once. Sold all the books I took there and they were not enough. Sold even the copies I kept for myself. Now they want me to come back as a solo performer.”

He also recalled an ‘awesome evening, he had at the home of Quincy Troupe, veteran teacher, poet in Harlem. Amu-Nnadi was so awed by Troupe’s personality that he described him as a moving, living library and shrine of poetry.

As part of the Medgar programme, he was also the guest of honour at a fundraiser for ‘a dear new friend’, Becky Seawright, Democratic candidate for the November general elections on Park Avenue, in Manhattan.

“I was meant to say a few things. I thought I would be more eloquent speaking through a poem, of which I am more familiar. A truly humbling experience to see how distinguished men and women of American politics honour the words of poetry and having them line up afterwards to have me sign the books was beyond what I’d experienced. Somewhere in there, I wondered when Nigerian politicians would begin to bother,” he recalled. He has written and published several poems, such as The Fire Within (first published in 2002, and won the ANA Poetry Prize that year); Pilgrim’s Passage (published in 2004, and long-listed for the Nigeria Prize for Literature; Through the Window of a Sandcastle (published in 2013 and won the ANA Poetry Prize and was runner up to the Nigeria Prize for Literature; Flames (love poems) and Wild Oaths (travel poems). Others are Ihejuruonu (poems of anguish and lamentations); and A Field of Echoes (new poems written in the last one year or thereabout).

Sunday Olowoyobiojo’s Cash-Less Nigeria: Benefits, Opportunities and Challenges published in 2014 is undoubtedly an epoch-making, innovative, cutting-edge and most likely, pioneer textbook on the cash-less experience in Nigeria. In all ramifications, it espouses the essence of cash-less policy in Nigeria in terms of benefits, opportunities and challenges. Written by a Banking and Finance graduate (from University of Ado-Ekiti now Ekiti State University) with half a decade experience in the financial sector, the book is enormous in its attention to details in terms of retrospection, currency and futurity. Thus, the material content of the book effectively flows from the past to the present and then projects the future for the now nation-wide cash-less policy in Nigeria. The book, handy and portable, covers such relevant areas as the justification for cash-less society, genesis of money and banking, the relatively new cash-less era in Nigeria, alternative banking channels, e-branch and ATM gallery, agent banking, strategic approach to cash-less transactions, benefits, opportunities and challenges of the policy, as well as galvanizing action for a cash-less society.

The book has provided practical insights on the cash-less initiative, addressed salient issues, examined legal and regulatory frameworks, identified challenges and benefits, and proffered suggestions on how to deploy technology toward building a better Nigeria via cashless-policy-driven financial inclusion. Thus, the book is a veritable source of financial literacy as it contains relevant materials on the ongoing transformation of the Nigerian financial system, especially the banking industry.

This innovative piece of work is indeed unique and the author tried to present this apparently wide range of issues of financial relevance within the ambit of cash-less Nigeria as an insightful gateway to advancing the legal-regulatory, socio-political, economic and finance experience of Nigeria in particular and other developing countries in general. This is further enhanced by the simplicity of the language in which the author has organized and presented the material contents of the book thereby making it possible for even non finance experts and professionals to be able to read, understand and apply in their daily finance decisions.

The book will be useful to policy makers, regulators, financial analysts, investors, entrepreneurs, professionals, instructors, students, the banking public and others who desire unbridled access to banking services and payments facilitation, especially in today’s transactions and payment system in which physical presence in a bank or market place, is no longer a necessary condition for exchange relations. Also, its usefulness comes to the fore when one considers the evolving paradigm shift of emphasis from the regulatory end towards consumer protection that has made the banks to provide significantly many more convenience banking service options driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and now being fostered by the cash-less policy; the harmony, synthesis and futurity of which is the essence of this book.

Chapter one extols the need for the Nigerian nation to go cash-less. In the chapter, the author identified technology and globalisation as the key drivers of banking system reforms that have orchestrated the need for cash-less society in different parts of the world. As a member of the global village, there is the need for Nigeria to key into the trend. Therefore, the cash-less Nigeria initiative is a move in the right direction because its benefits cut across all social classes and critical sectors of the economy. Moreover, the initiative has the potential to enhance the country’s aspiration for, and achievement of, financial inclusion for sustainable development, and modernize and develop the payment system in line with the Vision 20:2020 agenda among others. Chapter two traces the genesis of money and Banking. By way of introduction, the author considers both money and banking as veritable tools for progress and development of humanity, nothing, however, that while the former facilitates the acquisition of good things of life, the later guarantees the safety of funds and facilitates the financing of personal, investment, infrastructural development and other needs as well as businesses. The author traced the evolution of money from the barter system through metallic money, cowries, beads, manila brass, tobacco and paper money to the modern forms of money. He also traced the origin of banking to goldsmith’s receipt issued to gold depositors, which was subsequently used to foster transactions.

All is now set for the 14th edition of the Miss Niger Delta Beauty Pageant. With the theme: One Voice for Peace, Empowerment and Transformation, this year’s edition is scheduled to hold in December with much pomp and fanfare in Bayelsa State.

Given the peaceful disposition of the indigenes, Chief Executive Officer of Miss Niger Delta Beauty Pageant International Organisation, Prince Sodin, said the contestants and guests are sure to experience the true hospitality, Bayelsa style, and, by extension, the Niger Delta region.

He said this year’s winner would go home with a cash prize, a brand new car and an all-expense paid trip to Dubai, adding that she would be saddled with the responsibility of building bridges of peace not only in the Niger Delta region, but across the country. She is also expected to work with other queens from other regions to promote peace, love and socio cultural integration.

According to Sodin, the pageantry, which is expected to attract celebrities within and outside Nigeria’s fashion and entertainment industries and beyond, is not all about crowning beauty queens, but is designed to promote socio-cultural integration, tourism, human capital development, advocacy projects.

“Miss Niger Delta is a cultural pageant that started in 1999. The show has championed diverse campaigns to promote early education for children, with protection of the right of the girl-child right, campaign for re-orientation of values among Niger Delta youths, eradication of violence and cultism, among others. It campaigns against indecent dressing and prostitution, HIV/AIDS, sickle cell, breast cancer, environmental protection, examination malpractice, cultism and other social vices.

“The pageant has brought dignity and respect to the pageant industry because it promotes the rich cultural heritage and dignity of womanhood hence, contestants do not wear bikini or indecent attires or exposures during the show. It has produced 13 winners namely: Miss Niger Delta Ambassador for Peace and Development, Miss Niger Delta, Face of Beauty, Pride of Niger Delta, Symbol of Talent, Miss Niger Delta in Diaspora and Miss Niger Delta Model for Change. And they have used their positions to touch the lives of people positively in the region,” he said.

While expressing satisfaction over the policies and achievements of the tourism industry and development in the region, particularly that of the Bayelsa State, he commended Bayelsa State governorandtheDirector-General of Tourism, Mrs Ebizi Ndiomu Brown, for promoting tourism in the state.

The first runner-up will also go home with a cash prize and a trip to Dubai, while the second runner-up will go home with a cash prize and an all expense trip to Tinapa, Cross Rivers State. Other winners will go home with consolation prizes. It is expected to attract cream-de-la-cream in the society, stakeholders in the beauty pageant and entertainment industry in Nigeria, Africa, those in the Diaspora, Britain, America and Europe. The pageant forms are still on sale and would close at the end of the month. Sodin said the show is open for sponsorship to individuals and organisations.