Miss ANLCA, Greatestlove Uwadiale has emerged the winner of the first ever Face of Maritime International (FOMI) Beauty Pageant organized by Platform Reporters on Sunday in Lagos.
Uwadiale beat nine other contestants to come top of the contest, carting away N500, 000 prize money.
Whereas Miss NAGAFF, Ologunwa Oyinkansola clinched the 1st runner up with N300, 000 cash award, the 2nd runner up went to Miss NPA, Peace Michael who coasts home with the sum of N200, 000.
Also, Miss NPA, Peace Michael won the FOMI Photogenic, Miss NSC, Cynthia Emmanuel secured the FOMI Catwalk and Poise whereas Miss NIMASA, Mary Tekobo was declared FOMI Hilarious contestant.
Others are; Miss NAGAFF, Ologunwa Oyinkansola was declared the FOMI Most Influential contestant and Miss Customs, Naomi Eboigbe emerged as the FOMI Most Charismatic contestant.
Speaking shortly after being declared the winner of the pageant, Miss Greateslove Uwadiale expressed her gratitude to God for the opportunity, the organizers of the event for being supportive and for being very organized in the run up to the contest as well as her supporters for believing in her adding that it had not been an easy task.
Uwadiale hinted that she planned to bring so many innovations to the maritime industry especially creating an awareness for young women in the society to appreciate the fact that there were many opportunities for them in the maritime industry and that they should live up to their dreams because they can do better.
“Well, everything is actually a process but one thing I want to know is that I have in mind what I want to do. I am going to execute this project in a very successful way”, she said.
She posited that everybody that participated in the contest was a winner adding that although everybody was a competitor but then it was not everybody that won. ” I just want to say to everyone, keep on pushing until they get to that height that they aspire in life”, she added.
Earlier in his speech, Managing Director of Platform Reporters, Mr. Sylvanus Obasi said that they hoped to use the contest to bring about a change in the perception that the maritime industry was for men saying that by creating the awareness, they were telling the young Nigerian girls and indeed the world that there were chances for every woman in the industry.
“There is also a campaign which IMO is the one running it but we are also keying into that ‘Go to Sea’ campaign and how are we keying into it? We are keying into it by sensitizing young ones that there are so many career opportunities in the maritime industry, various courses and various professions in this sector. If you are not a seafarer, you can be a marine engineer; you can be a practitioner in the maritime sector.
“So, all these things are what we want to drive, then most importantly, it is also a woman empowerment programme. You can see that a token we have given them is N500, 000 for the winner, N300, 000 for the second and N200, 000 for the third, that amounts to N1, 000, 000. That is our little way of empowering them and we hope to do more”, Obasi said.
He pointed out that the pageant would be a yearly event now that the maiden edition had debut this year even as he said that the awareness they had created in this year’s edition would be a launch pad for the subsequent editions which he hoped would be better than this year’s.
In his words, “It is called Face of Maritime International, this year we didn’t have international candidates, our intention is that candidates from different maritime countries will key into this. This one, we are driving it through to make it really an international pageant”.
While admitting the fact that it had not been easy, the Platform Reporters’ boss thanked the stakeholders and colleagues who joined hands and supported his medium to achieve the feat.
Highlights of the events were musical performances by notable Nigerian artistes among whom is Cash Ofuobi, comedy show and induction nine persons into the Panel of Maritime Analysts. Members of ANLCA, NAGAFF, WISTA, Women in ANLCA, friends and families of the contestants were on hand to make the event a memorable one.
It will be recalled that 40 people entered for the contest but following a thorough selection process, 30 were dropped along the line leaving the 10 contestants that made it to the grand finale of the pageant.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
1 Comment
The artist name is KESH OFUOBI please correct