MBGN 2011: WHAT WE WERE ALL THINKING

The Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria 2011 (MBGN 2011); to use someone’s words, a state of emergency should be declared. I normally would not discuss this, but I couldn’t resist stating the obvious. Before we go on, please watch the following video clip, after which we will discuss some highlights:

 

MBGB 2011

 

Now that we are done with that, I am going to point out a few points, highlights that we all should have seen, but with a bit more analysis. It bears noticing even from now that this was quite sad.

 

Nigeria is without a single doubt, one of the most ethnically diverse countries on Earth today, and we constantly strive for unity among the citizens of the country. Still, could someone please tell me why contestants representing 18 states are represented by a geopolitical zone with only 5 states? The South-Eastern zone has only 5 states, yet in addition to representing those states it has its indigenes representing core northern states like Adamawa, Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Taraba, Gombe, as well as some core Western states like Osun and Oyo, or why Westerners are representing Kaduna and Borno states? I am all for national character, but if we just wanted Nigerians to contest, why don’t we just go to cosmopolitan states like Abuja or Lagos and pick girls for the competition? Why bother going from state to state looking for representatives?

 

Let’s talk mission statements of these young women. One gets the impression that it’s either they were poorly schooled on what to say, or they are a bunch of politicians masquerading as potential beauty queens, or they don’t expect us to take the seriously in the first place, so they might as well say anything knowing that no one will take them seriously. These mission statements are a lot like election manifestos and more often than not, people give the actual content 30% of their attention, because they hardly believe them, anyway, but listening to these young women rant off cliches or unattainable goals, or set such low expectations, it has the same effect as listening to a song by Vic O: you can almost literally see your IQ packing its bags and leaving your apartment, swearing under its breath never to come back. One of the girls actually looked bored while she recited her own mission statement. Let us not go into their grammar so that I don’t take this personal.

 

Am I the only one that noticed that these girls were LITERALLY begging for votes? Must everything we do reflect how bad our economy is? I get the impression that if they were allowed to, they would even kneel down on the ground with their hands clasped together pleading that we send our votes to their code/number, depending on who you were listening to: when did V3, or V6, or V12 become a number, for heaven’s sake? With all the begging going on, these girls are nothing more than beautiful hustlers. It is kinda reflective of their true mission statements, and what they intend to achieve if they get to wear the crown and sash of success at the penultimate event.

 

There are other issues like why Brazilian hair seemed to be standard option for all contestants, or the ridiculous age discrepancies with 30-year olds suddenly claiming to be 18, or why a lot of the contestants seemed to base their success on the statement, ‘By God’s grace’, but instead, I want you all to read the following that was sent to me:

The validity of these statements are yet to be tested, read on:
I watched with dismay and sadness some of the auditions of MBGN 2011 yesterday. We have to declare a state of emergency in our educational sector. It is sad to note that most contestants or aspiring beauty queens were asked the capital of Kebbi State, and 5 out 7 did not know. One said, the capital of Kebbi State is KOGI, her friend said Douala. One was asked to name the largest city in west Africa, she confidently said NIGERIA. One said,her expectation is that she is beautiful, fair, and jovial...the other was asked what is her opinion on foreign aids to Nigeria and Africa. She said there are many testing clinics now in Nigeria, so foreign aids, will not kill Nigerians again...one was asked to mention and talk about one current female minister. She said Mrs Okonjo Iweala, is the current Prime Minister heading Finance matters. One was asked about the governor of CBN, she said they are yet to conduct election in that state, another was asked what currency was used in nigeria before naira,she answered kobo, another said abacha was Nigeria’s first president.

I also doubt the validity of every statement, but with that being said, how far is it from what could possibly be the truth?

 

Some girls in my school did an amazing parody of the previous video. Thank you for reading this article, and please leave your feedback in the Comments section. Thank you!

 

MBGN 2011 parody

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A SONG BECOMES A PRAYER

 

This evening I attended a Darlene Zschech/Hillsong concert. I am not famous for expressing my emotions, but the concert was AWESOME! I couldn’t do the white-people-concert-jump because my ankle is still recovering from an injury I had recently, but I really enjoyed it, and when I found a window, I tweeted my comments and pictures of the event. Darlene has SO MUCH ENERGY! For one thing, I couldn’t believe I was actually at a Hillsong concert, and seeing her was like a sensory overload, one that, true to nature, no one else would have seen except me. I’m big on sound, so hearing all those speakers do their thing was a personal ministration. If ever I become a very good instrumentalist, the goal would have been so that I would be good enough to play for Hillsong. Those guys…. It felt like each instrument was doing it’s own individual praise ministration. As someone next to me said, it felt like the guitar alone was singing the words of the song. Watching the backup singers do their thing, I am sure I haven’t seen such consistent passion anywhere else. I don’t think it’s even fair to call them backup singers; with voices like those, they could easily sell their own records, and have their own grand concerts. And there was Darlene… Right now, in my mental ranking system, she is my favourite all-time worship leader. Let it be also known that this ranking hierarchy was set up as this article was being written. She is no spring chicken, but she clearly had more energy than anyone else on that stage; except the drummer. That guy had enough energy to power a small bike. The crowd… well, it was kinda a mixed reaction. The standing crowd was very involved in the entire thing, while those in the gallery and upper floors looked like they came to watch a movie that was a hit 6 months ago. Plus, my African brethren really brought it. We know how to worship, no doubt.

 

A lot of popular songs were rendered at the concert, and it’s Hillsong, so they were almost all sing-along pieces. For some reason, it is so easy to follow a Hillsong number, with the projected text and all. The song which appealed to me the most, and which inspired this article was probably the shortest one as well: All I Need is You. This song was rendered somewhere in the middle, and as it was sung around me, it stopped being words with appropriate harmony, and it became more than that. There are very few such songs, but in that moment I was able to separate the music from the words, and while I was in that hall, surrounded by about 5,000 worshippers, I prayed my only prayer of the night: All I need is you, my Lord. It was all I wanted. I was alone in that auditorium, nothing else mattered, my dreams, my interactions, my challenges, nothing else mattered. When Darlene also did a rendition of How Great Is Our God, it was then that I endorsed my decision to come for this concert as the best thing I would have done with my time this evening. That song, All I Need Is You, was, and is still my prayer. That right there was my act of worship. I would never trade it in for anything else. And to think I was this close to deciding not to go for the concert….

After the concert, I went to meet up with people I knew, who were all over the place. There was a light in everyone’s eyes, like we had shared a unique experience, each person in his/her own unique way. One thing was common, though: we had encountered God in that hall. The concert is past, and I am officially a concert person now. I did pray one more prayer. While Darlene was exhorting, she said that God was rebuilding and restoring dreams. I claimed it for myself, and I claim it for everyone who is reading this article. There is NOTHING God cannot, and will not do for you. All you need do is separate yourself to Him, and ask. Let Him show you how important you are to Him.

 

If you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, you have probably seen what I am about to write a number of times, but I know for sure, after my experience tonight, that I will never praise any man the way I will praise my God.

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