Kossy Okonkwo, 22-year-old Computer Technology student of Yaba College of Technology emerged the winner in the 2019 First edition of Queen Varsity Afrika beauty pageant.
The Enugu state born beauty queen beat 4 finalist contestants out of a total 0f 17 on Sunday, 28 July 2019 to emerge the new queen in the pageant.
This year’s pageant tagged “The search for Beauty plus Brains”, is the search for beauty and brains where various Africa female undergraduates and fresh graduates are engaged in what is call intellectual battles. There were 17 contestants from 13 higher institutions including a university from Benin republic.
The event was well attended by notable people and organisations in the society such as the Lagos state Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty alleviation, Brazil Consulate in Lagos state and Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB).
Jasmine Ofoegbu, the executive producer, Queen Varsity Afrika beauty pageant said, “The Queen Varsity Afrika pageant is an empowerment project for the girl child. Our focus is to groom and educate the girl child because when we educate the girl child, we educate a nation and this solves over half the problems in the country.
“This is the maiden edition supported by my financial savings as this is a 10 year dream that i am passionate about and financially it is coming true. We thank FUNAAB for allowing us to camp in their beautiful facility and for allowing us to use most of their resources during the course of production,” Ofoegbu also said.
She also thank the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo for being part of the edition and for taking out of his time to mentoring the contestants on several issues including good citizen and how to run a business.
The five finalists tagged “Princesses” which comprised of 3 undergraduates and 2 graduates were put through several tough questions by 2 judges who were Melvin Orji, CEO, Talkative Africa Media and Mallami Adeseun, CEO, BlvckHair-Nigeria to showcase intellectual capabilities
And the end of the event, Tonia Ifekandu, a student of Mass Communications from National Open university emerged the fifth runner up, Arewa Omoye, a student of History and International Relations from Ekiti State university, was the fourth runner up, Joy Nwosu, a graduate of nursing from la Cite University Benin Republic was 2nd runner up, and Oruscilla Falola, graduate of Physics from FUNAAB was the 1st runner up.
The winner and the runners up were legible to attend empowerment seminars and certifications within and outside Africa.
Kossy who spoke amidst tears of joy thanked God, friends and family for their support and spoke on what she intended to do during her reign as the new queen in the next 12 months.
“Firstly, as the queen and face of Queen Varsity Afrika, I am going to make sure the show go far. Secondly, it is an avenue for me to market and sell myself and my company which is KOWORLD, a tech company that embodies other businesses and K-tech, a school that will help to raise more women in tech as Africa as a whole lacks female technologists,”
“And also a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) that will be empower and support single mothers both financially and otherwise,” she further added.
Some upcoming and established Nigerian music artistes and comedians performed at the event which was held at PlamJ House Lounge, Lekki Phase one, Lagos. The next edition is slated to hold next year.
BUNMI BAILEY
