Miss Earth Nigeria

Miss Earth Nigeria is an annual national beauty pageant in Nigeria to select its representative to the international Miss Earth pageant.^[1][2] The pageant, with the theme "Beauties for a Cause" is organized by AMC Productions,^[3] and began sending representatives to Miss Earth a year after the international pageant was established in 2001.^[4] The current titleholder is model Marie Miller.^[5]

History

Originally, titleholders were winners and contestants of rival pageants Miss Commonwealth Nigeria (Vanessa Ibene Ekeke) and Miss Nigeria (Ewemade Ogbebor), until Miss Earth Nigeria became a pageant in its own right in 2004. The winner is expected to work in collaboration with environmentalist and state parastatals on how to make water safe, check erosion, pollution among others.^[6] The pageant also conducts road shows to educate people on the three R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).^[7]

Nigeria produced its first Miss Earth semifinalist when Stacey Gavey entered in the top 16 in 2007,^[8] as did Uko Ezinne the following year.^[9][10]

The president and national director of the pageant is Ibinabo Fiberesima,^[2][11] a pageant veteran who is now a Nollywood actress.^[12][13]

Titleholders

Color key

Below are the Nigerian representatives to the Miss Earth pageant according to the year in which they participated. The special awards received and their final placements in the aforementioned global beauty competition are also displayed.^[4]

Ufuoma Ejenobor, winner of the first Miss Earth Nigeria pageant in 2004

Year	Miss Earth Nigeria	Placement	Special awards
2002	Vanessa Ibene Ekeke[14]	Unplaced
2003	Eva Ewemade Ogbebor[12]	Unplaced
2004	Ufuoma Ejenobor[15][16]	Unplaced
2005	Ethel Okosun [17]	Unplaced
2006	Ivy Obrori Edenkwo[18]	Unplaced
2007	Stacey Garvey[19]	Top 16[8]
2008	Uko Ezinne[9]	Top 16[10]
2009	Nkesi Gift Okandu Dethroned [20]	Unplaced
2009	Modesta Alozie Replaced Okandu [21][22]	Unplaced
2010	Inarah Anthonia Isaiah[23]	Unplaced
2011	Munachi Uzoma	Unplaced
2013	Marie Miller	Unplaced
2014	Damola Akinsanya		01 ! Best Teacher

Controversy

In 2009, Law student Nkesi Okandu was dethroned by pageant organisers after she refused to compete in Miss Globe International as opposed to Miss Earth. Fiberesima later claimed that she had received threatening phone calls from Okandu's family who argued that her substitution was unfair. The newly crowned queen was labelled "rude" by the organisers, and was forced to resign after just two weeks, allowing second-place winner Biochemistry student Modesta Alozie to compete at Miss Earth instead, and reign as Miss Earth Nigeria for the remaining eleven months. It has since been argued that this was a plan to eliminate the winner, noting that while Okandu had signed her contract on September 25 (the same day she was asked to compete in for Miss Globe International), Alozie was already being credited as the winner of Miss Earth Nigeria on the Miss Earth website as early as September 22.^[20]

Munachi Uzoma, who won the pageant in 2011, accused the organisers of breach of contract following their failure to give her the of N1000,000 cash prize and brand new car, and disclosed that some of her predecessors also suffered similar treatment.^[24]

References

External links

• Official website