What is Killing the Nigeria Pageant Industry by Dominic Barcity

The Pageant Industry in Nigeria has Become an industry to reckon with in as much as it is an industry that does good, it also has its evil sides, let’s not dwell on any of these but look at this vibrant industry as it concerns Nigeria in contrast with the world.

As usual, most Nigerians want to do every business they find their peers doing especially when they think it is succeeding and this ideology has sadly affected the pageant industry.

Pageant competitions are supposed to create employment, enhance the fashion world, bring to live the mannequins that strut the stage and idolize young beauties by giving them platforms to showcase their talents, but in Nigeria it has become a beehive of infidels, non-professionals and mediocrity has become the order of the day! People now associate pageantry with a lot of ills such as prostitution, homosexuality etc.

As the cliché goes, beauty contests are here to stay. They are springing up like mushrooms such that almost every local government now has a crowned beauty queen, like Miss Orlu, Miss Ikorodu, Miss Bwari, Miss Isolo, etc. In addition, we now have crowned beauty queens for specific events and sectors, such as Miss Calabar Festival, Miss Tourism, Miss Campus, etc. No event, festival or carnival seems to be complete without a beauty queen being selected for it. Expectedly, pageant organizers are multiplying in leaps and bounds.

Here are few problems that are killing the Industry here in Nigeria…

1 Lack of Functioning regulatory Body: The Beauty Pageant Industry Ills can be attributed to the fact of lack of no functioning regulatory body regulating the beauty pageant industry in Nigeria and this remains the major factor why beauty pageant and beauty queen keep messing the industry up with several controversy, if the regulatory body is functioning well then the rest problems can be solved.

2 Transparency: This is the major reason why young girls don’t want to contest for any beauty contest anymore, Pageant Organisers lie about and always fail to provide the promised star prize and most of them also cheat in selecting winners.

3 Unprofessional Management by the organizers also remains one major problem killing the industry, most of these organisers don’t understand the pageant business so well, they actually feel it’s more about them staging a contest to get girls for pimping which is now known as the modern day prostitution.

4 Lack of Sponsorship: Most Pageantry with good content fade away easily due to lack of sponsorship, most corporate organisation don’t consider sponsoring beauty contest and this remains one of the major reason why beauty pageant industry in Nigeria is dying.

5 Beauty Queens forget the essence and core reasons why they are being crowned, they feel it’s just a platform to take dazzling photos for Instagram or go partying in all the biggest lounges & nightclubs in the city.