Sex & Bribe ...Influence beauty pageants in Nigeria
By ASHAMU ADEGBOLA
Sunday, September 3, 2006

•1996 Miss Nigeria contestant Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Ebony black and married, Remi Shodiya
is a beauty to behold anyday. She still exudes the beauty that once got her to the screening stages of a beauty pageant organised in Nigeria way back in 1996.

Round faced with a perfect dentition and bright eyes, Remi was prevailed upon by admirers to contest for Miss Nigeria 1996. She did but didn’t win not because she wasn’t good enough, but because of what she now refers to as the sex and influence involved in choosing winners.

Three years ago, Remi still wanted to try herself out but was disappointed at the screening by judges who had asked her amongst other questions, what food she liked best. The answer she offered disqualified her, or so she felt.

"I believe it was my candid answer to the judges who were trying to screen us that made me not to go into the next stage of selection process because I did not want to be a pretender. I was asked what food I like best, and I replied that I like amala and ewedu. This my answer provoked laughter among the panel of judges, who dropped their pens and papers and fell on one another as they laughed at me," she revealed to Sunday Sun in an encounter recently.

Remi asked further why do they want me to pretend about the type of food I like best. Do they expect me to say I like rice or salad, or any type of Oyibo food? I am an Abeokuta girl, so why should I pretend about that? Even though I was born in Lagos, I still have the pride of Abeokuta in me. My parents are known in the ancient town, likewise I am very popular there too. If I had won on pretence and I was asked in the public, those who know me would know I am lying."

Shodiya, who is now married to an Igbo man, also reveals some behind the scenes in the beauty pageants. A lot goes underground that many people do not know, not even the contestants. "You know that we are always many before the selection, screening and final selection. But then, you see letters flying around to the organizers from state governors, big people and socialites in the society." When we were undergoing the selection process, many big guys and old ones do come around to hustle for girls. They usually swarm venues of our selection and rehearsals hanging around to shop for girls like scarce commodity in the market."

Bold and ready to talk on just about anything, Remi is an interesting character anyday. For instance, Sunday Sun asked how she met and married an Igbo man out of so many admirers.
"My husband I married today is a different man. He is a special man. If I come to this world again, I will still marry him if given the opportunity. “Initially, I did not take him serious because he met me on the way and toasted me. After exchanging numbers and addresses, he started pestering and pressuring me, calling me very often. I would often joke with my friends that who is this Igbo boy trying to deceive. He merely wanted to sleep with me. I guessed then that he was like every other man who wanted to have carnal knowledge of me."

As if to prove me right, one day, he called me from Ibadan to come and see him. I refused and lashed at him that so you think I am a layabout girl who is looking for men’s thing around but he insisted I should come that my refusal ironically made him to conclude in his mind that he was going to marry me as he revealed to me later."

How then did the jigsaw of love between Remi and Duru fall into place and eventually got married?
"He was all over me, he even devised a means best to get a girl. He went through my mother, even though, she did not like the idea of me marrying an Igbo man. But Duru also had an advantage. He could speak Yoruba very fluently."

"When we started dating, I discovered that he had many girls who wanted him and were jostling to have him while I was making him a jellyfish. This also made me to be careful. But today I can tell you an Igbo man like Duru is the best in the world for me. I realised that after all I did not make a mistake in falling for him."

Remi is an undergraduate of journalism at Nigerian Institute of Journalism. Her female role model is Honourable Abike Dabiri whom she wants to be like. "Yes I want to become a famous broadcaster. That is what catches my fancy, and talk shows like Oprah Winfrey show and others."