A Day With Nigerian Beauties
By UbongAbasi Ise
On the invitation by the management of Slyz-B Movies Music Production & Modeling Agency, this writer arrived at an Uyo hotel (name withheld), where the bevy of ravishingly beautiful ladies drawn from all parts of Nigeria camped in preparedness for the 2020 edition of Face of Valentine beauty pageantry scheduled to hold at the Pyramids Lounge in Uyo on Friday 14th February, 2020. My appointment with the management was simply for media interaction. It wasn’t taken so long when my discussion with the girls slide to a viral online video of a man that was found dead in the hotel room after a sex romp with a young sex worker simply identified as Precious from Akwa Ibom State. The girls did not express any iota of empathy for the deceased, rather, they were somewhat emotional about girl Precious because of the revelation that she usually indulge in prostitution in the night after she might have closed from a day’s work as a bar attendant.
From the interaction with the damsels, three things were established: one, the whole Precious’s episode reflects how womanhood is debased in our society today. Two, it is another story that is stigmatizing and bringing bad name upon Akwa Ibom women, portraying them as being wayward because when one finger brings oil, it soils the rest, as Chinua Achebe would say. The third is that, the video is significantly retelling what illiteracy and poverty could do to our women, subjecting them to all kinds of ignoble and degrading toils as they seek to survive in the ever-demanding, materialistic society.
The Nigerian beauties were emotional about the plight of women in the country throughout the course of the discussion. Miss Sharon Isaac, 22, from Kogi State, who is a 400 level student studying political Science in the University of Lokoja, said abuses on women are on a daily basis especially as it stem from gender-based inequalities and cultural discriminations. She couldn’t imagine how women that bear so much love for the growth of humanity could be allowed to suffer scourge of societal ills. Miss Marian Zack, 22, from Benue State, who is a 300 level student at College of Education, Katsina-Ala, lamented how women in African clime are dismissed as weaker vessels. Because a woman is condemned as weak, according to Marian, every injustice perpetrated against her by male gender appears to be justified. Miss Deborah Ozoeminah, aged 21, who is in her 200 level in the University of Uyo studying Law, bemoaned how women in Igbo societies are denied rights to inherit properties from late parents and left to wallow in abandonment with nothing to guarantee them means of livelihood.
A contestant from Kano State, Miss Aishat Mohammed, 20, a 300 level student studying Computer Science in Bayero University, said when women are not catered for and could not afford most basic things they need, they are left with no options other than to indulge in illicit acts just to get what they crave for. A 21-year old student of Eastern Polytechnic Student in Port Harcourt, Miss Beautiful Confidence, who hails from Rivers State, said every woman is entitled to dignity, but a fair skinned beauty would blame men for always seeking to exploit women, making them compromise with their self-worth just to get what they seek. She would also blame poor parentage and illiteracy as significant factors militating against the expected virtues of women in the society. A contestant from Cross River State, Miss Melody Austin, 24, lent her voice by pointing out that lack of investment in a girl-child mostly resulted in the virtual lack of professional skills amongst womenfolk which mostly lead to unemployment and overdependence on their male counterparts.
But Miss Sandra Danjuma, 22, from Benue State, a student of Mass Communication in Benue State University, Markurdi, would take another view in discussing the reasons to degradation faced by women in our society today. According to Sandra, most women are from good parental background and are properly catered for, but they would still develop proclivity for prostitution and other social vices. She was not alone on this argument. Miss Jasmine Belbon, 20, who is doing her HND in Microbiology in the Metropolitan Polytechnic, Uyo, stated an instance in Edo State, where parents place much primacy in the upbringing of their daughters even more than their sons. According to her, parents would ensure that they provide the girls with what they need, but some of them would still stray into prostitution, suggesting that poverty might not force women into illicit acts after all.
With concluding tone, Miss Maria Amos, 22, from Abuja, who is studying Science and Laboratory Technology in the Kogi State Polytechnic, said women are primarily those taking care of the young leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, the quality of children raised by women is what the nation would gain as leaders. She noted that when a woman, constrained by societal ills, lost her virtues, she might end up raising morally bankrupt individuals for the society. She therefore called on government at all levels including stakeholders to begin the first step of building the nation by first building women and providing for their basic necessities and welfare in order to stave off the tendency to fall off into moral decadence.
Story behind Precious pathetic video is a bad cosmetic misapplied on the faces of Akwa Ibom women wherever they are found outside the state. It is a stigma that stinks. Whatever makes the citizens of the state to run to another man’s land to avail themselves on all manner of ungodly and squalid means of livelihood should be cut off by the root by our state government.
Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For comment, send your SMS to 08189914609
©The Sensor Newspaper
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