With many beauty pageants springing up in the country at any giving time it comes no surprise as the fallouts are too painful and at times very shameful to bear considering the mental, physical, emotional and financial turmoil most if not all of these ladies who contests in these pageants go through.
Aside the normal dragging associated with Miss Ghana and other known pageant; Miss African Beauty Pageant has also been rocked with a catastrophe which brings the whole pageant into this repute.
With its first ever crowning held successfully last year many were those who lest thought such a pageant with high stakes would be dragged in any mud to bring its credibility and transparency into disrepute. According to the contestants some of them did not fly from their respective countries as it is was alleged. In fact they are residence in the country or they came for one reason or the other but had to be lobbied to participate in the pageant
When the Weekly Fylla contacted Miss Mimata Sandya Outtara who represented the Ivory Coast, she confirmed that currently she is at the Regency University at Mateheko in Accra and she is pursuing a course of study leading to the award of a Degree in Banking and Finance.
Sandya went on to say that; “anytime we call Zynab Ayesha Passah (the Director of XYZ Company Limited) she says she doesn’t owe us anything though she didn’t give us any money for contesting in the pageant. Previously when we call she would say we should call later and that she is organizing something for us but these days when you call her she tells you she doesn’t owe you anything”.
Confirming Sandya’s claims, Aminata Camara who represented the Republic of Guinea last year said she was yet to receive any form of money from Ayesha. She added; ‘when I called her she told me she is still waiting to hear from the sponsors and anytime she hears anything from then she would get back to me but I haven’t heard from her and I have only ten days to stay in Accra. She went on to say that; ‘I am ready to let this matter die because I paid my own airfare here and 200 dollars would not do anything to me just that I think its not right to be treated this way” she concluded.
Hawa Kannen who represented Liberia also shared similar concerns as her colleagues and she is ever ready to do what it takes to get what she deserves from participating in the pageant. Almost all the contestants of last year’s event which the Weekly Fylla spoke to confirmed that apart from the winner Miss Monica Mbillah and Miss Gabon all the remaining contestants are yet to be given their prize monies and consolation prizes for participating and other expenses they incurred which they were promised to be paid later.
In a separate telephone interview with the reigning Miss African Beauty queen Miss Mbillah she appeared very shocked and completely unaware of what her colleagues are saying. She did confirm however that she has heard rumors about the whole farce going on about the pageant of which she is the reigning queen. “I must admit I don’t know anything about this because I traveled and just got back to Accra a couple of days ago but I will go to the office in the course of the week to find out what this whole thing is about. To be honest it would be totally unfair if what my colleagues are saying is true”. She fell short of talking about her winning package because it is been alleged by her fellow contestants that she had to be paid off simply because she is the reigning queen and she would be needed to help promote the ex pageant which in actual fact had the Ghanaian version launched last week at the plush Alisa Hotel last weekend.
Omar a bilingual event organizer and promoter who is now acting as the spokesperson for the contestants said it has taken them this while to come out and fight for their rights simply because Ayesha told him that; “she is a big woman with links to people in authority so she doesn’t care where they take the story to. In fact her statement made us sit up a bit but now we are up and there is no turning back. We are taking it to a higher platform now because this pageant might not come on because we will do our best to take this matter onto the international arena and inform the countries in the sub-region to be aware of what she is made up of.
Interestingly, Omar together with Abeiku Santana and Baisiwa Dowuona Hammond of TV3 anchored the event last year and are yet to be paid. He was also the aide to Ayesha and he helped in getting three ladies from the sub region to participate in the contest. ‘The treatment meted out to the ladies was very bad. They were housed in a no go area somewhere in Legon where nobody could visit them and they had to eat food they were not used to”.
All attempts to contact Ayesha on phone have proved unsuccessful. The calls were picked by her secretary or were just not answered. The Weekly Fylla would follow this case until the truth is out. Do all beauty pageants and some events organizers in this country have to end this way? Are event organizers just exploiting the ladies or are just in to make their monies and doesn’t care whatever happens next? This practice has to come to an end soon!
