The Miss World contest is at the best of times a silly affair which, many have argued convincingly, degrades those who take part in it. The competition certainly perpetuates an out-of-date view of women as unintelligent beings notable only for their looks. Unfortunately, this vapid event has moved from the stupid to the tragic. Over 200 people have lost their lives because of it. The decision to stage the Miss World contest in Nigeria, a country with a significant Muslim population during the holy month of Ramadan defied all common sense. It demonstrated, if demonstration were needed, that the people behind this half-witted event were every bit as half-witted themselves. Though they have attempted to distance themselves from the deadly riots that followed the blasphemy produced by a local newspaper, the tensions that were unleashed had been building for weeks as a direct result of their actions.
What one of the promoters chose to term as “innocent fun” has turned out to be a deadly horror. The organizers have now decided to move this tacky event to London, which was where it originated four decades ago as a publicity stunt for a chain of ballroom dancing venues.
The organizers are hinting darkly that they made a mistake in assuming that Nigeria was a sufficiently stable country to host what they keep trying to pretend is a genuine and important international event. Blaming Nigeria, however, is unfair. Of course, those Nigerians who were party to organizing the unseemly parade are certainly guilty of a grievous lack of judgement, the worse because a moment’s thought would have told them that even were the event suitable for a country with devout Muslims, the timing was totally inappropriate. Nigeria is a country where, for a long time now, ethnic tensions have been near the boiling point for a variety of reasons — economic, tribal, political and so on. With every interest group ready to burn, kill and destroy “the other” at the smallest excuse, it is only the most thoughtless who will be foolish enough to provide that excuse. The organizers of the pageant have done that.
It must be hoped that those who perpetrated this awful mistake will be properly pilloried for their error. Meanwhile, the main organizers are hastily leaving behind them the carnage they have created and taking their circus off to London. There, it will hopefully be treated with the disinterest, if not contempt, it deserves. Indeed, it may not be too much to expect that advertisers and sponsors of this unedifying event will decide that enough is enough and withdraw their financial support for the contest. It would be nice to believe that this cynical exercise has come to an end. It perverts the whole meaning of the word “contest” which at its highest incarnation is a genuine competition between athletes and a measure of sporting excellence. It has nothing to do with women parading around and telling a bunch of arbitrarily chosen judges about their hobbies and their ambition to be a hairdresser.
The consequences of this rubbish are normally disgust and boredom. Unfortunately in Nigeria, they have been a very great deal more serious. And no less unfortunately, it is clearly too much to expect that the cynical and ignorant promoters of this garbage, should feel any shame at all.
