Rivalry With Miss Nigeria
The differences between MBGN and Miss Nigeria have been compared with Miss USA and Miss America. While MBGN delegates compete at international level, Miss Nigeria winners no longer have this privilege. In 2010 Miss Nigeria was relaunched as a scholarship programme while MBGN continues to operate as a commercialised event, although Miss Nigeria winners in recent years receive a modelling contract as part of their prize. MBGN focuses mainly on physical beauty unlike Miss Nigeria which is excepted to promote inner beauty with a wholesome girl-next-door image - as a result its swimsuit competition was famously scrapped in 2010 but this feature remains popular at MBGN. Talent is another important segment in Miss Nigeria while at MBGN this is notably absent, but still a requirement as winners are expected to compete in the talent competition at Miss World.
Shortly after Agbani Darego's victory at Miss World, Miss Nigeria 2001 Amina Ekpo took legal action against her MBGN counterpart who was accused of misrepresentation, stating that Darego had fraudulently presented herself as Miss Nigeria at the international pageant, and had not been authorised to used the title. Former Daily Times managing director Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo, who had famously described MBGN winners as "lowly-rated queens" at the Miss Nigeria 2001 grand finale, supported the $10,000,000 lawsuit, claiming "We will do everything possible to make sure we prevent people from tampering with a patented pageant like Miss Nigeria, will not allow anybody to misrepresent us."
Read more about this topic: Most Beautiful Girl In Nigeria (Pageant)
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“It seems to me that we have to draw the line in sibling rivalry whenever rivalry goes out of bounds into destructive behavior of a physical or verbal kind. The principle needs to be this: Whatever the reasons for your feelings you will have to find civilized solutions.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)