Ama 'tasting' her new car
There was a huge roar of discontent from a cross-section of the audience when the youngest among the 10 beautiful contestants was named as the winner of the 2010 and eighth Miss Malaika beauty pageant at the Dome of the Accra International Conference Centre last Saturday.
The cacophonous oohs and aahs that accompanied the mentioning of the name of the 19- year- old Level 100 student of the University of Ghana, Ama Nettey, was apparently due to the fact that some of the people in the audience had hoped that the title would rather be handed to the first runner-up, Stephanie Mensah, a 20- year-old student of the Central University College.
A few minutes before the announcement of the winner, Stephanie was seen by some members of the audience as the most likely among the top five contestants to win as she was deemed to have answered the last question better than the others.
The main MC for the night, Chris Attoh had asked each of the five remaining beauties “Who is an African and what makes you an African? Is it your country of birth or the colour of your skin? Please give details.” Was it by country or by blood?
Stephanie was the first to answer. Seated in a sofa provided for the purpose, holding a glass with “champagne” in it and being goaded on by Attoh to take a sip of the drink, Stephanie tackled her question and after a jumpy start she delivered her answer the best way she could to a resounding applause.
Then the disaster started. Each of the other three constants that followed Stephanie could not answer the question correctly as each demonstrated a monumental proportion of lack of depth and understanding of basic issues. They beat about the bush as though they were chasing rats and then grinned to the camera for effect!
It could be as a result of the tension and nerves, but that was not the first time on the long night that contestants had displayed a good amount of ignorance and shallow grasp of issues.
Earlier during the presentation session, contestant after contestant was unable to properly articulate themselves very well when they were asked follow-up questions by the judges.
Meanwhile, Ama brought the rear in answering the last question and she was relied on to save the occasion from the blunders her previous three competitors had lavished on the audience and viewers. She started pretty well and perhaps due to the low quality that preceded her, the crowd roared with applause.
Unfortunately, the applause seemed to have rattled her as she digressed from the good road she had chosen and ended her submission very awkwardly. It was at this point that some people among the audience and others watching from home and commenting on facebook thought Stephanie would be declared the winner although others still insisted it could go to either contestant.
It was the prerogative of the judges to declare the winner and they chose Ama over Stephanie. It was in view of this that some jeered the result although it must be said that a lot of people also applauded the choice of the judges as they thought Ama answered her question well and seemed to be an all round person hence a better ambassador for the pageant.
As it turned out Ama was handed the crown by her predecessor, Giselle and she also received the accompanying mouth watering prizes consisting of a KIA Cerato Saloon Car, GHC4,800 annual salary, GHC15,000 promotional contract with MTN, a charity icon for MTN, GHC1,200 MTN talk time, personal wardrobe from ABC Wax Print, a year's supply of cosmetics and perfumery from Nouvelle Gandour and working as Youth Ambassador for the Malaria Control Board.
What does Stephanie take home as the runner-up? Cash of GHC2,000 as well as wax prints from ABC and cosmetics and perfumery from Nouvelle Gandour. While the second runner-up, Berla went home with cash of GHC1,500 as well as wax print from ABC and cosmetics and perfumery from Nouvelle Gandour.
It was a long night of wit and entertainment that started with a beautiful display of Egyptian dance by all the 10 finalists namely Nana Yaa Henaku - Larbi, graduate, IPMC (20), Ruqy Alhassan, student, University of Ghana (20), Berlinda Adade, student University of Ghana (22), Ayerkie Marnor, student African University College of Communication (22) and Deborah Abena Duku Koomson, student, University of Ghana (21).
The rest are Ama Nettey, student University of Ghana (19), Perpetual Yaa Kedze-Kaditey, student University of Ghana (20), Belinda Esinam Ofori, undergraduate (21), Emelia Amandi, student (20) and Stephanie Mensah, student Central University College (20).
There was both good and bad music on the night. Nigerian artiste, Banky W disappointed on stage, D-Black was at his usual rhythm-less best, Praye was just ok and VIP thrilled the audience with their one-way Away song.
Being her first time on the Miss Malaika stage as co-host, Naa Ashorkor Mensah Doku was a bit jittery and nervy but managed to assist “veteran” Chris Attoh to host the show in the absence of the long serving host Jessica Opare-Saforo.
Actors John Dumelo and Jackie Appiah and broadcaster, Paul Adom-Otchere joined Miss Malaika series god-mothers Anne Sekyi and Kay Bentsi-Enchill as judges for the night.