When Miss Chidinma Blessing Okeke from Ogboji, Orumba South LGA in Anambra state, heard about the 2015 Miss Anambra Beauty Pageant organized by the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) she must have seen an opportunity worthy of exploitation and dreamt big of winning it and making name and money for herself. With a winning prize of one million Naira and a car she felt fortune could come her way if she exploited her natural beauty and intelligence to overcome the opposition. So she decided to throw her hat into the ring. She participated and won the contest fair and square and the rest is history.
Few weeks or months ago, however, a huge scandal broke out. A detailed lesbian sex act was trending online. And before anyone could shout ‘holy Jesus’ Chidinma (barely 20) had become a household name around the world for bad reasons. The embattled ex-beauty queen had been entangled in a lesbian sex tape scandal. In an explicit video, which has since gone viral on the internet, where she was seen having a ‘cozy time’ with a female sex partner who unconfirmed sources simply identified as Ada, a runner-up in the 2015 beauty competition held in Awka, the capital of Anambra state in south-east Nigeria.
Perhaps afraid of the consequencies of the damaging visual leak, she had lied about it all claiming she was not the one on the video! That was a low mark and amounted to being clever by half! In this digital age of borderless possibilities one ought to be very vigilant not to be caught pants down! Alas she fell to the manipulations of forces greater than her. Back home in Nigeria the lewd ‘fire’ is still smouldering trying to consume both the organizers of the event and the ‘victim’ herself.
It is not that it is a crime or evil for anyone to act nude or be involved in an explicit sex act. After all, Rocco Siffredi, the global porn megastar, is married to Rosa for 23 years now despite his notorious profession! The 44-year old of Hungarian origin even recently confessed openly of her conjugal bliss! Some popular actresses in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world have had reasons to pose nude for gossip magazines or act nude in films. The future US First Lady, Melania Trump, once posed nude for a magazine in the United States or France for some dollars! That does not stop her from living in the White House, come January 20, as the controversial President’s official wife.
Following the controversy Chidinma simply went underground if only to regain some sanity and manage psychologically the fallout of the public porn presentation. She emerged weeks later to open up in an interview she granted ‘The Nation’ newspaper in Lagos. There, she was as blunt and defensive as she could opening up a can of worms. She told her own side of the interesting story no-hold-barred and reportedly wept in the end.
Her words: “Early last year, the ABS advertised for the Miss Anambra beauty pageant. I heard of it and went to make enquiry…. My roommate was also interested, but one of the organisers told me to apply. I told them I was not interested but the man insisted that I might win the competition. He also promised to give me the form for free if I indicated interest, and he did when I agreed to contest….But one Jane told me that before a winner would be declared, there were certain things to be done, including the (sex) video. I consented after some persuasion from the organisers. I later went for the contest at the Marble Arch Hotels in Awka, and I was declared winner with a Kia Rio vehicle as star prize”.
And she continued: “When I went for my car after the contest, the organisers brought out a contract form for me to sign, but I told them I wanted to contact my lawyer to see it. I was not given the opportunity to do so…..What they kept telling me was that if I insisted on not signing the contract or wanted to contact my lawyer, they would release the video….At that point, I became uncomfortable and signed the contract to avoid such embarrassment, and the car was released to me from where it was packed within the premises of ABS….From that moment, I became a slave to them. On October 11, 2016, they called me to come and make presentations inside the office of one the organisers. After that, the man excused some people in that room and showed me the video again”.
And she concluded thus: “They told me to drop my car and removed my crown from me. I told them I would take the car as stipulated in the contract. They insisted I should pack it in the premises of (ABS)….I told my uncle in Abuja about the situation. My uncle called them and asked them to release my car to me. Instead, they forwarded the video to him as part of the blackmail. That was what happened.” Chidinma was reported to be crying as she narrated her ordeal!
I have decided to quote her in full to underscore the importance of her intervention and defense. In Igboland in general and Anambra state in particular (where I hail from) it is a taboo to do such a thing associated with her. In such shameful circumstance of public nude display by a young unmarried girl marriage could be compromised and the stigma could stick for as long as memory could be activated. The cultural greatness of the Igbos is beyond any doubt, hence the need for the demonstration of social solidarity towards Chidinma no matter her ‘offense’.
The DG of ABS has dutifully issued a rebuttal to what Chidinma said in the ‘Nation’ newspaper interview. But he sounded less convincing and more intimidatory and arrogant than what he set out to do: defend his public media outfit. Calling her a “liar” or castigating her is disingenuous and tactless. And saying she was “conned” because of her “greed” raised the question of connivance and network of fraud woven around the ABS-organised beauty pageant event. If the writer who had lived long enough abroad before being appointed to his present position knew that a con artist was at work what did he do about it?
Pray, is greediness now a crime punishable by disgrace or forfeiture of a duly-won award? If the answer is a resounding ‘no’ then Miss Okeke could afford to be greedy or stingy as far as the interest of others are not hurt. We are not convinced by Uche Nworah’s statement because (a) he did not tell us the name of the man that brought the scandalous video to him; (b) no formal investigation was ever carried out by the ABS to ascertain the veracity or blackmail dimension of the video before reaching a conclusion to ‘punish’ the girl and (c) why was there no edition of Miss Anambra for this year and why withdraw her car gift? Indeed, it would appear that Uche knows more than he was telling us; something in me
is telling me that he has not told the truth, the whole truth! We therefore demand for full disclosure! And it behoves him to tell it as it is if his integrity and that of his Service would be restored in the public eye!
According to what I read online there was the ‘Chief’ connection in the whole sex saga. An unnamed ‘Chief’ was said to have reached an oral accord of sponsorship with the young beauty queen. He provided her with money, took her to Europe or America and gave her all she needed in order to win the pageantry. But when victory smiled her way Chidinma reneged on her part of the agreement and ‘Chief’ was livid! He warned her of dire consequencies but the damsel rebuffed him — intoxicated perhaps by her new-found fame and wealth. But one is wary of the veracity of this wild claim from an anonymous source. So it is with a pinch of salt that it was taken — whatever implications it had on the issue at hand notwithstanding.
But the question is: who the hell is this ‘Chief’ and what did he invest in Chidinma and now want in return? Was he behind the video? Why would an old man who ordinarily could be Chidinma’s father or grandfather (depending on his age) stoop so low as to damage morally a girl whom providence bestowed with charming combination of beauty and brain? So, money, for the so-called ‘Chief’, is greater than every other thing including preserving the honour and dignity of a beauty queen?
I have watched that lesbian video and another one where a real porn act was enacted involving Chidinma and a playboy. It started right in the middle of an ‘ocean’ inside an open small cruise boat and terminated amorously in a brutal sexual intercourse. But a critical analysis of all the videos showed that she was set up for a ‘kill’. I felt instant revulsion as I thought about how the innocence of a dashing young girl could be abused and the intimacy of her womanhood violated and reduced to a public show of shame by those she must have disappointed or those hunting for her fortune at the expense of her honour as a woman and future wife and mother.
The management of ABS has some more questions to answer as their statements did not go far enough to convince us of their ‘innocence’ in the whole sex saga. It is not enough to issue an apology to anyone or government. What role did it play in the whole disgraceful matter? If Chidinma was “conned” according to the Director of the state media then a scam artist is prowling somewhere in Awka and he must be sought out and dealt with. It is morally reprehensible for this kind of issue to be associated with our great state of Anambra.
Ms Chidinma Okeke, from all indications, was used and dumped if not duped! Her naivety and youthful exuberance was mindlessly exploited to damage her reputation and destroy her promising future and career. We deplore such wicked cruel tactics which only a syndrome of cupidity could accommodate! We salute the fortitude of her parents and friends in these trying moments. We hope that the hard lessons must have been learnt and conclusions reached.
We are consoled as it were that age is on Chidinma’s side and as a burgeoning model she might be able to get out of this mess a better and wiser person. Our prayers are with her and her family! Take heart, baby-girl, be strong; it shall be well with you!
