Photo Courtesy Of BBC Pidgin
Favour Rufus recently won a local beauty pageant, defeating 18 other contestants.
According to BBC News Pidgin, the blind pageant winner won the 2022 Miss Port Harcourt City Beauty Pageant, beating out 18 other women. Many discouraged her from joining the pageant due to her condition, but she ignored the naysayers and chased after her dreams instead.
“My dream was to become a beauty queen even [though I’m] blind,” she told BBC Pidgin.
Rufus reportedly went blind at just eight years old after enduring problems with her eyes since the tender age of six. Doctors reportedly said her left eye became completely blind and that her right one would also go blind if she missed her constant treatments. However, she didn’t allow her visual impairment to stop her from doing what her heart desired. BBC Pidgin said she worked very hard to fulfill her dream and ended up competing in Nigeria’s biggest state pageant. Now, she’s officially the current Miss Portharcourt City Humanity 2022.
“We all [have some sort of] disability, [whether] it’s financial or physical,” Rufus told the outlet.
Nigeria also recently made headlines for its controversial decision to ban foreign models from their advertisements. The announcement was made via an official statement by The Times Of London, the Advertising Regulatory Council Of Nigeria (ARCON).
“All advertisements, advertising, and marketing communications materials targeted or exposed on the Nigerian advertising space are to use only (local) Nigerian models and voiceover artists,” ARCON wrote. “Advertisers, advertisement agencies, media houses, the advertising community, and the general public are hereby enjoined to take note.”
The ban reportedly went into effect on Oct. 1.
The African nation has also been making strides toward having its sacred artifacts returned after years of them being held by Western institutions. News Onyx reported that a bronze sculpture depicting a West African king was returned after being in The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum’s possession for over 70 years.