Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu revealed how she refused to participate in the pageant at home.
The former Queen spoke at Nigerian Women’s Day at the 69th Session of the 69th Status of Women at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Bianca won the most beautiful girl in the Nigerian competition in 1988 at the age of 20. She also won the Miss Africa pageant in Gambia in 1989, and then represented Nigeria in Hong Kong and Miss Universe in Mexico.
Bianca’s father Christian Chukwuma Onoh (commonly known as CC Onon), was a businessman and lawyer who became governor of the Old Anambra State in 1983 at the end of the Second Republic of Nigeria.
Bianca said that as a young lady, she did not allow her privileged background to distract her.
She stressed the importance of education in every woman’s life, adding that when she began making money as a beauty queen, there was a temptation to abandon her legal plan on the University of Nigeria’s Enugu campus.
“I’m really a young girl and want to see the world,” she said.
“I remember always sitting in the communal room with other young girls at that time, we would watch the top of the box, the music videos, Miss World, Miss Universe, and have a long impression of the exotic background.
“I just want to travel and see the world, what’s the best way to do it without going to a beauty pageant?
“So, I started my journey of a beauty pageant that I won.
“Of course, my parents didn’t know. They didn’t send me to school for beauty pageants, so I had to give up.
“Until I am now attending the most beautiful girl in Nigeria, it left me homeless for a month because it comes naturally
“But I think he had to accept it after I won other pageants like Miss Africa, Miss Intercontinental and so on.
“But what I have to do is, one of the hardest things is that when you start making money early, the biggest temptation is to leave school
“By the time I made money, I was a law student, living in a hotel, and about six students who had no water and nothing, and then back to school, education as a lawyer was challenging
“But it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I think young women need to understand the power of education.”
