By Adedapo Adesanya
Miss Chidimma Adetshina has been crowned Miss Universe Nigeria 2024, beating out 24 other contestants for the coveted title.
Miss Adetshina, representing Taraba State, clinched the coveted crown at the grand finale of the beauty pageant held in Lagos on Saturday night.
After receiving the most votes, the 23-year-old beauty queen—who recently made news for pulling out of the Miss South Africa pageant over issues surrounding her Nigerian heritage—proved to be a popular favourite throughout the competition.
She was born in Soweto, Johannesburg’s historic township to a Nigerian father and a mother, who is South African with Mozambican roots. South African law states that citizenship can be acquired if you are born in the country and at least one of your parents is a citizen or permanent resident.
Her emergence led to xenophobic attacks and her eventual withdrawal from the contest. The experience even led to an online ride-hailing fiasco that saw citizens of Nigeria retaliate after South African users on Bolt started ordering rides and cancelling them.
In response to the news of her withdrawal from the Miss South Africa pageant the organizers of the Miss Universe Nigeria invited her to participate in their competition.
“This is an opportunity to represent your father’s native land on an international stage, and we believe you would be an outstanding contender,” said Mr Guy Murray-Bruce, the national director of the pageantry, in a statement.
As the newly crowned Miss Universe Nigeria, Miss Chidimma will represent the country at the Miss Universe 2024 pageant, scheduled to take place later this year in Mexico.
She succeeds last year’s winner, Miss Mitchell Ikachukwu, and will carry on the legacy of Nigerian beauty and excellence on the global stage.
Emerging winners on the night as well were Miss Anambra as the first runner-up also known as Miss Supranational and Miss Ondo, the second runner-up known as Miss Lush.
Miss Rivers and Miss Kwara also won special awards while Miss Oyo scooped the top model award, Miss Imo won Best Costume and Miss Abuja also won the Best Talent Award of the night.
In the top 10 were Miss Kwara, Edo, Taraba, Anambra, Ogun, Plateau, Lagos, Rivers, Ekiti and Ondo, which was later streamlined to five: Taraba, Rivers, Edo, Ondo and Anambra.
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