A 21-year-old student of the Nasarawa State University (NASU), Miss Faith Philip, on Friday, emerged as Miss Gbagyi Nigeria 2015.
The pageant, which took place at the Arts and Culture hall, Area 10, Abuja is to promote the girl-child empowerment and to showcase the rich cultural values of decency, honesty and hard work in the Gbagyi community.
Faith, who was full of joyful tears, won a Mazda car and will be visiting primary schools in the Gbagyi rural areas to distribute free stationeries to the pupils as part of her pet project.
She will also pick two children from each of the five Gbagyi states – Kaduna, Nasarawa, Niger, Kogi and Abuja, to award scholarship from primary to university level.
She was crowned by the outgoing queen, Miss Shekwoyemi Bawa.
The first runner-up was 23-year-old Sarah Luka with a prize of an LG flat screen television, second runner up is 18-year-old Dinnatu Shekwosa with a table gas-cooker gift.
“Miss Humility’’ was also awarded to 20-year-old Grace Daniel with a washing machine gift.
Hon. Yohanna Peter, the Chairman Bwari Area Council represented the chairman of the occasion, Hon. Zakari Angulu, House of Representative, Abuja South.
Angulu thanked and appreciated everybody in attendance and wished that next year’s edition would be better.
He encouraged the Gbagyi youths to be educated as he believed that one day a Gbagyi man would be a Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and even the President of Nigeria.
The pageant had earlier featured the Chairman of Abuja Body of Comedians, Mr Sosthenes Ayuba aka Dr Ayuba, who opened the show with comedy.
The occasion was attended by Gbagyi indigenes and non-indigenes from across the country.
NAN reports that the number of girls that applied on the Internet for the competition were 35, out of this, 13 eventually made it to the pageant after auditioning and screening.
The contestants are Abraham Ruth, Dinnatu Shekwosa, Dauda Mariam, Faith Philip, Blessing Danjuma, Magode Philip, Grace Daniel, Joy Dangana, Mary Zakka, Sarah Luka, Paulina Jezhi, Joy Simon and Maryam Zamani.
The pageant also featured musical performances by Styl Plus, Steve Willis, Gbagyi Cultural Troop from Piakasa, Abuja.
The coordinator of the Pageant, Mr Ezekiel Dalhatu said that the girls were rated based on their composure, compartment, carriage and cultural knowledge.
He said that for now the girls were recognised by their names and serial numbers and not by their states because a couple of contestants hailed from one state.
The pageant was officially declared open by Mrs Kande Aduda, wife of FCT Senator, Mr Philip Aduda.
The Acting Director, Arts and Culture, Abuja, Mr Danjuma Kuyempo, congratulated the organisers for their resilience, foresightedness and hard work on the pageant.
“A man without history is with no identity or culture but we as Gbagyi people know where we come from and are forging ahead,” he said.
Mr Sunday Azaki, who is one of the organisers of the pageant said that the first edition took place in Dec. 12, 2014, which he said had all the challenges that came with a new project, part of it was the need for financial support.
“This year, we have done a lot of publicity on the pageant and we pulled through every stage. It has been great,” he said. (NAN)
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