Miss ANLCA, Greatestlove Uwadiale has emerged the winner of the first ever Face of Maritime International (FOMI) Beauty Pageant organized by Platform Reporters on Sunday in Lagos.
Uwadiale, a final year student of Mass Communication department at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), beat nine other contestants to come top of the contest, carting away N500, 000 prize money.
Miss NAGAFF, Ologunwa Oyinkansola clinched the 1st runner up with N300, 000 cash award, the 2nd runner up went to Miss NPA, Peace Michael who coasts home with the sum of N200, 000.
Other winners at the event include; Miss NPA, Peace Michael won the FOMI Photogenic, Miss NSC, Cynthia Emmanuel secured the FOMI Catwalk and Poise whereas Miss NIMASA, Mary Tekobo was declared FOMI Hilarious contestant.
Others are; Miss NAGAFF, Ologunwa Oyinkansola was declared the FOMI Most Influential contestant and Miss Customs, Naomi Eboigbe emerged as the FOMI Most Charismatic contestant.
Speaking shortly after being declared the winner of the pageant, Miss Greateslove Uwadiale expressed her gratitude to God for the opportunity, the organizers of the event for being supportive and for being very organized in the run up to the contest as well as her supporters for believing in her adding that it had not been an easy task.
Uwadiale hinted that she planned to bring so many innovations to the maritime industry especially creating an awareness for young women in the society to appreciate the fact that there were many opportunities for them in the maritime industry and that they should live up to their dreams because they can do better.
“Well, everything is actually a process but one thing I want to know is that I have in mind what I want to do. I am going to execute this project in a very successful way”, she said.
She posited that everybody that participated in the contest was a winner adding that although everybody was a competitor but then it was not everybody that won. ” I just want to say to everyone, keep on pushing until they get to that height that they aspire in life”, she added.
Meanwhile the Managing Director of Platform Reporters, Mr. Sylvanus Obasi said that the ideology was to use the contest to bring about a change in the perception that the maritime industry was for men. He stressed that there was a dire need to create awareness about the enormous opportunities for young Nigerian girls and the world in the industry.
“There is also a campaign which IMO is the one running it but we are also keying into that ‘Go to Sea’ campaign and how are we keying into it? We are keying into it by sensitizing young ones that there are so many career opportunities in the maritime industry, various courses and various professions in this sector. If you are not a seafarer, you can be a marine engineer; you can be a practitioner in the maritime sector.
“So, all these things are what we want to drive, then most importantly, it is also a woman empowerment programme. You can see that a token we have given them is N500, 000 for the winner, N300, 000 for the second and N200, 000 for the third, that amounts to N1, 000, 000. That is our little way of empowering them and we hope to do more”, Obasi said.
