Miss Naa Okailey Shooter, a 22-year-old medical student at the University of Ghana, used her intelligence and wits to outshine 17 other contestants and win the coveted Miss Ghana 2012 crown last Saturday at the Accra International Conference Centre. After a hotly contested pageant, the runners-up were 23-year-old Nadia Ntanu and 22-year-old Jennifer Annan, who came in second and third, respectively. This year’s pageant, organized by Exclusive Events, marked a return of Ghana’s oldest beauty pageant after a year's hiatus. Miss Shooter took the crown from Stephanie Karikari, who won it in 2010. For her impressive performance, Miss Shooter will take home a variety of prizes, including a brand new Hyundai Accent 2012 model and GH¢3,000. She will represent Ghana at the Miss World competition next year. The pageant did not kick off on the grandiose note that organizers had hoped for. Instead, it picked up slowly, dragging into early hours of Sunday morning and eventually ending at 3:30am. Ghana’s ace MC Kwesi Kyei Darkwah (KKD) and screen goddess Anita Erskine kept the show running smoothly and excitement running high. While the talent show was marred by an obvious lack of talent, the night’s other segments were generally fantastic. Still, many contestants fumbled through the Q&A round, with some judges’ questions seeming unnecessarily complex and confusing. Ten competitors, Naa Okailey, Roseline, Biley, Nadia, Precious, Gifty, Oforiwaa, Martha, Jennifer and Afriyie advanced from the Q&A stage. In the next round, their task was to describe a social issue, prescribe a solution, and convince the judges and audience of their proposal’s efficacy. From here, five more competitors were eliminated. The five remaining gorgeous ladies struggled to answer the finals questions adequately, but Naa Okailey appeared to have fared the best and thus left with the crown. Controversies With barely three weeks to the Miss Ghana event, finalists Emelia Ainooson of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and Dzifa Delloh of the University of Ghana, Legon dropped out of the competition, citing personal reasons. Their withdrawal reduced the number of contestants to eighteen.