Miss Nigeria, Chioma Obiadi, has advised future beauty queens to work more on showcasing their talents and intellect rather than physical beauty during the various stages of selection and their tenure in office.

The reigning queen, Obiadi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) during a visit by the Miss Nigeria Organisation that her unique selling point that eventually won her the coveted position was her analytical ways of issues affecting the country when she appeared before the various panels.

“I will like to advise up-and-coming Miss Nigerians or futuristic Nigerians to work more on showcasing their talents and intellects rather than beauty, which got me into this position.

“This is because the position of Miss Nigeria is achallenging ambassadorial office which requires tasking the occupants to proffer solutions to many contemporary issues affecting the society.

“Any Miss Nigeria must be 80 per cent of brain and intellectual know-how and 20 per cent of beauty because every girl is beautiful.

“This is not me showcasing my body, this is me building myself and working for my country.

“You want to be the most confident and feel amazing about yourself.

“I have never been more aware of social issues or more sensitive to how people feel about their environments more than now that I am occupying the driver’s seat.

“You should focus more on substance than the physical look.

“If you feel you have to be dressed in a certain way or a certain piece of luxury for you to be someone, it means you are not worthy of it.

“It means you do not have the substances required of you to occupy the post of Miss Nigeria,’’ she said.

Miss Nigeria said that she belief that any reigning beauty queen’s priority should be how she could impact positively on the society by initiating and implementing enduring projects that could stand the test of time.

Her tenure should not be about showcasing designers’ wears and branded accessories such as shoes and bags, Obiadi said.

She also advised girls to look up to women of good standing and substance in the society as their role models.

“Oprah Winfrey is my role model because of how she struggled in life to become great despite various challenges that she confronted.

“My role model had her life very tough; she had a lot of challenging times in her life.

“After reading through her life story; how she became pregnant at a tender age and losing the child afterward, I felt, that was the worst thing that would ever happen to anybody.

“If she could go through all of that and still made it to where she is now, then I don’t know what my excuse is, I don’t know what your excuse is.

“I say if you dream it, you can live it. Keep pushing, keep striving, pray to God, believe in God and do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. Everything will be fine, “she said.

She was grateful to various corporate organisations and private individuals that had assisted the Miss Nigeria Organization in funding her projects.

“We need more assistance from other corporate organisations and private individuals.

“ We have written letters to some state governments, various parastatal agencies and some private organisations who have agreed with what we are doing.

“We have been going to schools for this same sensitisation programme on how o keep our environments tidy.

“We have got feedbacks from parents who said their wards had been able to differentiate between recyclables and non-recyclables.

“This will make the children grow to understand that they are obligated to take care of their environment, ” she said.

(Source: Today)