By Victor Arjiromanus
In recent times, the struggle to bring out the girl child from subjective irrelevance and socio-cultural dominance is taking a new dimension. Individuals and institutions who understand the uniqueness of the girl child is taking initiatives to enhance the course of their development. One of such initiatives is the ‘Little Miss Nigeria Project’.
The Little Miss Nigeria Project (TLMNP) is a revolutionary initiative founded by Mr. Oladele John Nihi. The first children pageantry show which began in 2016 was built on a sole purpose of preparing the girl child for a responsible adulthood. The pageantry show takes the young girls between the ages of eight to eleven years, through a mind developing process.
This includes indulging them in healthy beauty competition, comprising intellectual and rudimental physical fitness exercises. The girls in a competition are rated by a set of professional judges, using their intelligence in attempting questions, appearance in sport, cultural and professional regalia as parameters for rating them. The essence of these is to intentionally encourage full participation in those spheres of living.
According to the Deputy Executive Director, TLMNP, Miss. Maryam Omodunbi the project was initiated to put a stop to the menaces being faced by young girls in the society, and to encourage them to pursue their future careers. “In today’s society, girls are vulnerable to different social vices ranging from rape, trafficking, forced and child marriage, based on these we decided to intensify effort in actualizing this project through a street-back to school campaign.”
The pioneer pageant queen (2016-2017), Miss Precious Onwuka and the Outgoing queen, Esther Lawal are proofs that the project is living up to its expectations. Both of our queen’s have won several awards, become more relevant to the society and they have initiated other human development programs through the support of TLMNP.
Miss Precious Onwuka was honoured with the outstanding little queen of the year award in 2016, Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Abuja, by Nigeria Goodwill Ambassador Agency and Best performed little queen of the year by the Youth Exclusive Choice Award, in Marble-Arch, Awka, Anambra State. Precious carried out projects such as; Save our blossoming planet, Clothe a child campaign, Speak out awareness and others, which are campaigns to develop people generally and fight against child abuse, molestation, trafficking and neglect in particular. Academic reports have shown, also that precious is a high performer in school which is why she is presently on scholarship.
Similarly Esther Lawal, aged 13 was awarded the overall best student in her primary school 2017, like Precious, she has been into projects that support the development of children. She is presently at the British Elite Standard Imperial School Kubwa, Abuja.
Since its establishment in 2016, TLMNP has continued to make progress. The 2018 season which holds on 26th May, 2018 at Ikeja promises bigger and better packages and fun for the contestants and audience while notable entertainers like Mercy Johnson Okojie, the special guest judge, performing artists Jaywon, Jumabi and others will be there to thrill the audience.
