Miss Bamidare Babajide is winner of this year’s Miss UNILAG beauty pageant. The 400-Level student of Law at the University of Lagos tells HITZ the thrills of her journey to the coveted crown.
Tell us how you feel being the queen of the University of Lagos.
I feel wonderful. Although it has been days, I am still ecstatic. The new status is a change and every other thing that comes with it. I feel wonderful.
What motivated you to participate in this year’s competition?
Basically, I wanted to use this medium to build self-confidence. I was supposed to participate in last year’s competition, but along the line, I became shy even after some much encouragement from my roommate and friends. I made them a promise that I would do it this year, and that was why I participated.
So, your goal was not to win?
Going there, for me, was to be among the first three. To build confidence and to have fun were my priority.
One could say you have your confidence back, but did you have fun too?
Yes. After the audition, we were trained for two weeks, weekends inclusive. We attended different entrepreneurship training, fitness training, modelling coaching, women empowerment programme, training about communication and a number of brain-tasking activities. It was really helpful and fun for me, although sometimes I felt the stress. I saw it as a way to build myself for something greater.
Beside beauty tips, what else did you learn from the competition?
I learned so much from this competition. Some of things we were taught centred on vision and life after school. I have always been excited about going into the real world after school. The training we received here helped boost my morale. As a law student, I cannot wait to start dealing with big businesses and organisations. One of the key things I picked up during the training was how to start with whatever you have in mind. The logic is if you had a maturity date of five years for any big plan, working on it now would make it a lot easier to hit success than if you just waited for the right time. The Yaggey seminar on communication was helpful too. As I said before, I entered the competition to build self-confidence. So, attending the seminar on communication, on how to stand before people, on how to comport oneself has motivated me a great deal. I really enjoyed myself and I am very grateful to God for being able to take part in this competition even if I had not won it.
When contestants were asked to exhibit their talents, some chose to dance while others sang or acted. Why did you choose spoken words? Are you a poet?
Well, I write poems. I love poetry. It is one of the ways I express my feelings when I am alone. But when we were asked to choose a talent to perform on stage, I was in a fix selecting something. Usually, for competitions like this, if you are not singing, then you must be dancing or acting. There are really not many things to choose from. Personally, I love baking cakes. And, of course, baking was not an option. I also can dance, but I decided not to dance. We were 15 ladies and chances were that half of us would love to dance. Going for spoken words was an attempt to be different. It was, however, a big choice for me because I was not the girl to speak in front of a large crowd. As I said earlier, it was all about self-confidence and putting into practice what I learned during training. I was inspired by the seminar on women empowerment. I wrote something in that direction and the result was what you saw on stage. I was discouraged in the beginning. I was told people did not like poetry or even spoken words. I was surprised at the way my presentation was received by people. I still receive messages of encouragement from people on Instagram and Twitter. They said my talent killed it!
Do you believe there is something elegant about poetry and royalty?
Yes, I would agree that poetry or spoken words have some grandeur about it. First, it reveals the state of mind of the poet or speaker. It is a deeper level of expression and thinking that is akin to royalty. I contemplated all of these things in making my choice. I couldn’t imagine myself jumping around the stage dancing or acting. I could have sung, but it was easy for me to express myself through poetry. I felt it would portray the essence of a queen.
For the cultural display, your choice was also well received. Why did you choose Iyanya’s cultural attire instead of a Yoruba outfit?
Nigeria has so many cultural beauties that we shouldn’t be stuck with Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. There are places like Efik Ibibio, northern Cross-River, Ugep that people have not thought of exploring. I was going to choose Edo attire but I felt it was common - although beautiful. So, I decided, based on the diversity of our culture, to choose something else.
Now that your choices were rewarded with a crown, how do you intend to rule UNILAG?
In answering the question I picked on stage, I said if I won, I would use the opportunity to actualise my goals and aspiration in life. And one of the things that I have discovered even during this competition is that believing in oneself is a major step towards confidence. I want to make more ladies believe in themselves. There are loads of girls that feel they are not beautiful. If there are more empowerment programmes for ladies, like the E-circle, we could make a lot more ladies realise that they do not need anyone to tell them that they are beautiful. After this contest, I have heard people say, ‘She is not even that fine.’ And I am like, ‘my beauty is not about what people see outside.’ I can talk with someone for 10 seconds and know whether they are beautiful or not. So, if I could make ladies see that they are more valued for what they have inside than outside, then I could have achieved something.
You were handed a new Toyota Matrix last Friday. What are the other benefits attached to this position?
Aside from the car, I know there are other packages attached to it. It is a new phase of my life. The benefits will depend largely on how well I make use of the opportunities that come with it.
Given your new status, do you intend to abandon your law career?
I have been into modelling since 100 Level, but I do not intend to abandon Law. Being a queen is an added advantage; I believe it will take me out there, but Law is my career. However, we can only see at the level of our understanding. The world is funny. Perhaps I will combine the two, but if I am to choose between modelling and Law, I think I will go for Law.
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