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HAPPENSTANCES AT THE MBGN 2014…… + HOW IHEOMA NNADI EMERGED WINNER.

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The Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant has been going on for the past 26 years, and this year 2014, marked the 27th year of this foremost pageantry, which has produced Nigeria’s finest ladies who have also represented the country in other international pageantries, sometimes coming out tops. The emergence of Agbani Darego MBGN 2001, who went on to win the Miss World in South Africa, gives credence to the fact that indeed the MBGN is a pageantry where excellence is top priority.
But that is not surprising, considering the fact that the MBGN has the privilege of working with renowned professionals such as, Juliette Hagerman (US trained choreographer), Derek Baum (US trained director) and Preere Opoufom (Nigerian based choreographer). All mentioned names have amazing credentials and wealth of experience, which they have brought to the MBGN pageantry thus making it at par with any international pageantry.
The 2014’s which was hosted by Bayelsa State Government on Saturday 19 July, 20014 started with a red carpet reception while the event proper kicked off at exactly 7:30pm, with a line-up of all the contestants in their respective local costumes. It was a feast of cultural fiesta as they all dazzled in their various native costumes, which represented each state. The outfits were also a means of showing creativity as they were allowed to infuse their personal styles and twists in the costumes for an edgier fashion representation. The contestants danced to the music while some background information of the states they represented was shared to the viewing audience. Thus providing an opportunity for people to learn more about the various states in Nigeria.

 

The 2014 MBGN was hosted by Ik Osakioduwa and Yvonne Vixen Ekwerre, both of whom have been previous hosts of the pageantry. The amiable duo introduced the panel of judges made up of, Dr Ikeora May, Eniye Ambakederemo Ukpeh, Ini-Ibehe Okorie, Sylvia Nduka, Mrs Gbemisola Awoniyi-Foloyan, Garth Deacon and Bryan Okwara. The hosts continued to thrill the audience with jokes and banter, as the judges went about the serious business of judging the pageantry objectively.
The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha Jonah (rtd), gave a great speech and affirmed that “We are unlocking the beauty of Bayelsa, and this we are doing in an organised way, and as we always say, this is just the beginning. We have much to offer from what we’ve seen so far, from dependence on oil to an economy that can stand on its own. And that is why the government is creating an enabling environment for tourism to flourish”.
He went further to state that “Last year we had two Bayelsan girls, and the government said next year we are going to have our own pageant and we will select them for the state level pageant.” He ended his speech by welcoming everyone to Bayelsa and enjoining them to have a sweet stay in the state.
Then came dancing time, the contestants came out in a red attire and sashayed to Davido’s, (Aye), their choreographic performance was on point. As the crowd clapped to their dance.

Yeka Onka, winner of Nigerian Idol 2011 singing contest, came out and gave a dazzling performance of one of her singles (Somewhere in the world).
This year’s MBGN also incorporated the social media as Chioma Okpala, a presenter with STV read out tweets sent in by viewers, she also revealed all the razzmatazz happening back stage in a segment of the pageantry called “My Corner”.
Sheyi Shay, sensational up and coming music act emerged and performed a skit (Oluwaloseyi) on stage. As usual her performance was fair and energetic, and had the crowd asking for more. Immediately after Sheyi’s performance was the swimsuit segment and the crowd went berserk, especially the male audience as the beautiful contestants emerged in their sexy swim suits. They came in four batches of ten contestants each.
Doctor Lee, gave a great performance of his song (I Go Dance) as soon as the contestants made their exit from the stage. Then came another parade from the intended beauty queens, but this time in their night wears. They all looked beautiful and the audience clapped and clapped. The last set of parade by the contestants was in their evening wears and as the host IK said, the girls indeed looked absolutely stunning.
As the 30 contestants stood in their evening gowns, it was time for the judges to make their first selection of the best 15 and they were…
1. Miss Plateau—Josephine Oghonoghor
2. Miss Bayelsa—Bisola Mohammed
3. Miss Kogi—Erica Nlewedim
4. Miss Ondo—Obafunke Braithwaite
5. Miss Adamawa—Anita Omofonma
6. Miss Delta—Fortune Woko
7. Miss Abuja—Princess Dennar
8. Miss Kano—Violet Okwazu
9. Miss Edo—Queen Celestine
10. Miss Imo—Analoo Ibadin
11. Miss Anambra—Angel Ineh
12. Miss Lagos—Michelle Adepoju
13. Miss Kwara—Chinyere Adogu
14. Miss Osun—Endurance Akpoyibo
15. Miss Akwa-Ibom—Iheoma Nnadi
Amidst claps of encouragement from the audience, the 15 contestants were separated from the rest and after that came the presentation of awards to the topmost outstanding contestants among the best 15, and they are

 

Awards…
1. Miss Photogenic: Miss Kogi. (Erica Nlewedim)
2. Miss Charismatic: Miss Kwara (Chinyere Adogu)
3. Best Traditional Costume: Miss Delta. (Fortune Woko)
4. MBGN Model: Miss Gombe. (Precious John) who also wins an authomatic modelling contracts with Isis Modelling agency.
5. Miss Amity: Miss Edo (Queen Celestine)

The judges were then asked to select the best five among the 15 contestant and from which the queen would eventually emerge. The judges had a hard time in making this selection as they argued back and forth, agreeing and disagreeing.
While that was going on, Patoranking and Sheyi Shay came on stage. Patoranking first performed his hit single Alubarika and the crowd danced to the song, afterwards Sheyi Shay joined him on stage and they performed their duet (Murder). He ended his gig with his song (Girlie o).
As the crowd clapped for him, then came the moment to select the best five contestants from the initial 15 beauties and they were—
1. Miss Edo– Queen Celestine
2. Miss Kwara—Chinyere Adogu
3. Miss Osun—Endurance Akpoyibo
4. Miss Akwa Ibom—Iheoma Nnadi
5. Miss Abuja—Princess Dennar
Then came the interview session. The five outstanding beauties were each asked one question and their intelligence was assessed through their answers.
After that, whilst the judges were making their final decision as to whom should be crowned MBGN 2014, the outgoing MBGN, Miss Anna Ibiere Banner, came on stage and walked her final walk, while commenting about how exciting her journey had been for the past one year. She also wished the in-coming queen success.
Then sensational soul singer and Bayelsa born Timi Dakolo was called out to serenade the potential queens. He came to the stage singing John Legend’s (All Of Me). Ending his performance with (Iyawo Mi) his latest single, Timi made his exit for Guy Murray Bruce, the Vice President of Silverbird Group.
Mr Guy made a brief speech and reiterated the importance and duties of a beauty queen, he also named the various benefits attached to each position and then announced the sequence of the final selection from the judges.
Fourth Runner up–Miss Abuja
Third Runner up– Miss Osun
Second Runner up–Miss Kwara
First Runner up–Miss Edo
And the winner is!!!
Miss Akwa-Ibom! Iheoma Nnadi.

By: Sunday Adebayo (Who was in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State)

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NOLLYWOOD HAS CAPACITY TO SURPASS HOLLYWOOD AND BOLLYWOOD FINANCIALLY WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SUPPORT” SAYS THEO UKPAA AT A RECENT LECTURE.

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Media Executive and AFRIFF COO, Theo Ukpaa delivered a very insightful lecture during his master-class at the Oslo Urban film conference in Norway. He gave a detailed breakdown on the growth of the Nigeria film industry popularly known as Nollywood. Nollywood ranks second in the world after Hollywood with a financial value of over $6.4 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing movie industries in the world and one of the biggest employers of labour in the country. Ukpaa felt a need to enlighten the global film front about the Nigeria film industry while emphasizing that with Federal Government support, Nollywood has potentials financially to surpass Hollywood and Bollywood out together.
“To put the financial impact of Nollywood on the socioeconomic landscape in proper perspective, we must consider the known fact that the Nigerian movie industry is currently ranked the second largest film industry globally with the financial value of the film industry put at over $6.4 billion as of 2021” Ukpaa narrates.
The Oslo Urban film conference Norway in is organised by independent filmmakers and attracted speakers and facilitators from all over Europe, USA and Asia. At the event which also saw players and stakeholders in the industry from all over the world being rewarded with awards of various categories, the AFRIFF COO said the impacts of Nollywood in the Nigerian economy, if well sustained would open doors of prosperity to the country and beyond.
Ukpaa said “since the breakthrough by pioneers of the industry in the 60s and early 90s, “Nollywood has become a thriving space that not only provides an avenue for entertainment but also generates significant revenue for Nigeria’s economy”
“Furthermore, the job-creating potential inherent in the industry cannot be overstated as the industry currently employs over ten million people, making it one of Nigeria’s largest employers. Its capacity to employ a large number of people has been applauded by the World Bank, who acknowledged the job creation potentials of Nollywood,” he added.
There is no surprise regarding the high registration and turn out Ukpaa’s Masterclass following the success of his Masterclasses all around the globe, incorporating his many film lectures at various international universities. Mr. Ukpaa has spread his teaching to institutions in Europe, America and African continent. The Global film development Masterclass integrated Filmmakers technical and conceptual understanding of filmmaking with the practical dimensions of managing career in the Global film industry. Young filmmakers were enlightened about the great influx of streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime video and the current industry business models and development plans to advance their careers in filmmaking on a global stage.
According to Theo “Often times people focus merely on the show and glamor as well as the razzmatazz that comes with filmmaking, and end up dying broke. A strong national economy depends on a strong creative economy—and it all starts with a story. The film and television industry supports 2.4 million jobs, pays out $186 billion in total wages, and comprises over 122,000 businesses. As a Filmmaker, one of the best moments is directing real stories of real individuals, getting them to the big screens and smiling to the Bank”. He believes that passion can burn out when expenditure and hard work does not produce financial returns. These are part of the important basics he taught at his Masterclass at the coal city film Festival.
Young filmmakers were also thought how to pitch their film project, how best to approach investors, how to access international grants, how to approach film distribution the perfect way and how to stay relevant in the film industry while maximizing profit.
Theo Ukpaa is an African filmmaker, playwright, and entrepreneur. He was listed as top 10 most promising new directors by Africa Kulture Magazine in 2020.
Ukpaa is a certified project management professional offering a Master’s in Business Administration degree from the prestigious Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California plus a Diploma in Contract Law from the esteemed Harvard University. A Native Nigerian with a passion to empower young art and culture creatives through teaching and Masterclasses at various free empowerment across Africa.
He also touched on the importance of a production treaty between Nigeria and the neighboring African countries to ease free flow of cultural exchange and breaking language barrier while leaching on great treaty benefits. The importance of Government tax incentives was also emphasized.
It was imperative to note that the Nigeria film industry contributes largely to the nations GDP and deserves a lot of support from the government as it relates to growth and sustainability in the creative sector of the country.
Theo has multiple speaking engagement lined up all year at various institutions including the Willshire Film festival in London, Sabia film festival in Monaco, the Francoise film festival in Paris, France and the United States of America

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AFRIMA Demands Justice For Slain AKA; Urges Governments In Africa To Protect Music Stars

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The International Committee of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), has implored governments of African countries to arrest the growing cases of violent deaths against music stars on the continent just as it urged the South African authorities to expedite the process of prosecution of the killers of rapper Kiernan Forbes popularly known as AKA.

AFRIMA recalls that the 35-year-old AKA was killed in a cold-blooded shooting on February 10, 2023, at a nightclub in Durban, South Africa and the awards body is demanding that everyone linked to his gruesome murder be expeditiously brought to justice.

President and Executive Producer, AFRIMA, Mike Dada, in a statement, said governments of African nations must make deliberate efforts to prevent violent attacks against music talents, averring that the disturbing trend could potentially erode the gains recorded in the creative industry over the years if not checked.

Dada said the murder of AKA is a wake-up call to governments across the continent to scale up their security architecture to encourage the protection of talented individuals. He suggested that efforts should be sustained to checkmate the proliferation of small arms especially.

AFRIMA said the senseless killing of AKA utterly hurts African creative space, insisting that South African authorities must arrest and prosecute everyone involved in the dastardly act.

“We strongly demand from the government of South Africa to arrest and prosecute all the persons involved in the killing of AKA to serve as a deterrent to criminally-minded individuals who cut short the lives of talents at their prime. The crime deterrent is for criminals to know that there is a big chance for them to be arrested, prosecuted and convicted; we strongly call for justice to be sufficiently served in this case.

“However, this is also a call to the governments of various countries across the continent of Africa to react to this gruesome killing by addressing the challenge of the proliferation of small arms. The trend of arms proliferation in Africa has had an impact on the continent’s internal security, which has led to violence and the deaths and injury of thousands of innocent citizens including our music stars and we encourage steps that will lead to the protection of the lives of our talented stars.

“Our ideals include using the platform of AFRIMA to promote the strength of Africa and tell a positive story of the continent and we believe we can tackle poverty, inequality, unemployment, climate change and other challenges bedeviling our dear continent through music but the lives of creative talents should be protected to fully realise these lofty dreams,” he said.

Similarly, speaking on AKA’s killing, AFRIMA’s Country Director, South Africa, Lekunutu Seboko, said the government of the country must back up its promises and assurances with concrete action by solving the murder case in good time. He believes bringing the perpetrators of the heinous crime to book will deepen the trust and belief in a better future for not only the music stars in the country but all South Africans, where they can feel safe and secure in their homes and communities.

“AKA’s sudden death is a deeply disturbing tragedy and development in South African music; the ghastly manner of his death has had international reverberations and our government must endeavour to bring his assailants to book to prove to the world that we indeed operate a system that uplifts justice and sanity.

“Undoubtedly, the African music landscape is diminished by his untimely death; but it is now the responsibility of South African authorities to ensure that justice prevails. We understand that some arrests have been made, but the process of bringing everyone connected to his death to book must be swift because justice delayed is justice denied,” he said.

AFRIMA also reacted to the sudden death of another South African rapper Costa Titch who died in March while performing on stage.

Dada said the invaluable contributions of Costa Stitch, whose real name was Constantinos Tsobanoglou, and AKA to Africa’s creative and music ecosystem would be sorely missed.

He added that African music was yet to come to terms with the sudden demise of the two great artists, describing them as true musical giants whose incredible songs and voices touched countless lives.

He added that AKA set the bar high for South African hip-hop just as Costa Titch took it up a notch and the two superstars collectively and collaboratively projected African music and culture on the world stage with many songs they did together.

He added that the two music icons were prominent figures in the AFRIMA community, recalling that AKA was a winner while Costa Titch won multiple nominations.

Dada said: “The deaths of AKA and Costa Titch will continue to cause significant reverberations across the African music fraternity because their contributions to the art were simply magical. Their music, messages, and successes gave hope to young Africans mired in poverty, violence, and uncertainty. Their works did not only elevate the hip-hop genre to the mainstream of South African music but impacted the global music audience in a manner that deepened the acceptance of African music and culture on a large scale.

“Their losses are personal to us in AFRIMA because they have been part of our journey. We recall that AKA won the Best African Collaboration award in the 2015 edition of AFRIMA for his effort on ‘All Eyes on Me’ which features Burna Boy, Da LES and others, while Costa Titch got a historic six nominations in the recently held 2022 edition. The greatness of their crafts is still being acknowledged even in their graves.

“We are still sombre and sad about their sudden departures. They inspired the whole of our continent; full of faith, courage, and strength, they have left a huge void in the music industry and their invaluable contributions to the African music ecosystem would be missed forever.”

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“KOFA’s Enigmatic Wale: Etim Effiong’s Performance Takes the Spotlight”

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As directed by Jude Idada , starring Daniel Etim Effiong, Gina Castel, Beverly Naya, Zainab Balogun, Kate Henshaw, Ijeoma Grace Agu, Lucy Ameh, Enyinna Nwigwe, Shawn Faqua, Bucci Franklin.

The movie Kofa is titled in Hausa, one of the indigenous languages of Nigeria meaning Door.

A blockbuster tragicomedy, a crime movie with a twist in storyline. You would never see it coming. The movie started with 8 individuals who were entirely clueless about where they were and have no memories of who they were, each in the room was taken away at gunpoint and it becomes a struggle for the rest of the group to find an escape, at the same time trying to bring back there memory of who they were. Each remembering someone else’s memory and telling the other their memory they remembered not knowing that they were reinforced to think that way. They are each a character of a science project and that’s not even the real them they remembered.

 

This amazing movie further portrays the revolutionary movement of the “bring back our girls”, military and the heroic deeds of fearless female and male military spies who laid down their lives to search for these missing school girls which a good number of the girls were found alive and the military spies missing in action and military spies who died in action.

 

The movie promotes the beauty of Lagos showing places like Ikoyi{old money Lagos}Victoria Island {new money Lagos}, Isale Eko, Marina Lagos Island, Ajegunle, Apapa, and Lekki.

Furthermore, amidst the struggle of the 8, Wale(Daniel Etim-Affiong) who was the annoying one of the 8 effortlessly entertained the audience with endless laughter, an example is when he was shot in the thigh and the bullet was removed by Nosa(Enyinna Nwigwe)the doctor among the 8, there was no way to stop the blood, the ladies were asked to take their bra off because they were in just bra and panties(they ripped them naked before they were abducted).

 

Wale was after the sight of breasts which he did see, making viewers wonder what is the most important thing to him at the moment.

 

Also saw for a long-lasting minute, Tosin(Gina Castel) the supporting actress relentlessly in just her panties and no bra on fought a macho man(Udoka Oyeka) who is one of the captives and she ended up breaking his neck just in panties and no bra on. It’s a must watch. You should see it.

 

At the private screening of the Movie KOFA that took place at Filmhouse IMAX lekki, 3rd of May 2023, where the casts and crew and a selected Journalists and critics had the privilege of seeing the movie.

 

SOCIETY REPORTERS had a chat with the lead act, Daniel Etim Effiong who played the role of Wale…. Excerpt…….

What would you regard as your major challenges in the Movie KOFA ?

 

One of my major challenge in the movie was having to act the majority of the movie in my underwear was something I have never done before and put me in the mind frame of focusing on acting and losing the thought that you are in underwear with your colleagues that you have never seen like that before and the second is jude style of directing, having to be in a story that is out of the box and taking the character to any length I want to take the character to was very fresh, different and challenging for me.

 

How would you justify your thinking out of the box in acting what brought out the best of you and what you have been used to before?

 

It was just fresh for me and of course it was a message to creativity, it was uncomfortable, but it was all fresh and the outcome we were all happy

 

In the nearest future, would you like to work with Jude ?

Ofcourse, Jude is like a brother to me and if your senior brother calls you to come and do something you have to answer and aside that jude sees the world fresh and different and anytime he writes,you would never see his storyline coming.

How do you prepare your mind when you are about to go on a movie set

 

I read the script and I create the character I’m playing in my mind using my experiences and the way I think combined.

 

Do you have a watchword that motivates you ?

I have a lot of them but one of my favorite ones is as long as it is a new day,it’s a new opportunity,every morning you have a new opportunity to do it better,to do it differently,to go for your goals.

 

The movie Kofa won the best film award Africa International film festival(AFRIFF),Best Actor(Daniel Etim-Effiong)and best screenplay Jude Idada.

 

Daniel Etim-Effiong was nominated for Best Actor in a drama series at AMVCA and Gina Castel nominated as best supporting actress in a drama series(AMVCA)

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