Entertainment
Nigeria Boasts Of Over 1000 Beauty Pageants …As Basketmouth Slams Organisers
Miss Earth contestants in a dance practice in Port Harcourt
Beauty pageants in Nige
ria precedes the birth of the country in 1960. Daily Times Newspaper started beauty pageant in Nigeria with Miss Nigeria, thus owned the franchise. Miss Nigeria started as a photo contest in 1957. Contestants posted their photographs to the Daily Times headquarters in Lagos where finalists were shortlisted.
Successful candidates were invited to compete in the live finals which at the time did not include the swimsuit sequent at the Lagos Island Club. UAC employee, Grace Oyehide won the maiden edition of Miss Nigeria, she was succeeded by secretarial student, Helen Anyamaeluna, while former seamstress, Nene Etule remains the only non Nigerian to have won the contest.
She was eligible as Southern Cameroon was under the Nigerian constitution in 1959. The following year, the contest was briefly renamed miss independence to commensurate the country’s independence from Britain and the winner, Rosemary Anieze was crowned.
The 1960s saw Miss Nigeria competing at international level, Yemi Idowu who won the contest in 1962, was a semi finalist at the Miss United States in 1963. Her successor sales girl Edna Park was the first Nigerian at Miss Universe in 1964. She is best remembered for disrupting the event by collapsing after failing to reach the first 15 spot. After park, no other Miss Nigeria competed in Miss Universe. Rose Balogun became the first official Miss Nigeria at Miss World in 1967.
MBGN Pageant
The Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, also known as MBGN is a beauty pageant organised by the Silverbird group with the aim of sending representatives to international competition originally known as Miss Universe, Nigeria. It was renamed most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria after Daily Times lost its license to send delegates from rival contests, Miss Nigeria, to Miss World and Miss Universe.
Silverbird boss, Senator Ben Murray Bruce promoted a new pageant known as Miss Universe in 1983, after it changed it’s name to most Beautiful Girl In Nigeria (MBGN) in 1986, its maiden winner was model Lynda Chuba. In 2007 Silverbird announced that the pageant would produce four more representatives besides the winner.
The original titles were Miss MBGN Universe, (to represent Miss Universe), MBGN Tourism (for Miss Tourism International) and MBGN ECOWAS (for Miss ECOWAS pageant). A fifth title MBGN Model which allowed its holder to compete in modeling contests at the international level was dropped, and replaced with MBGN Ambassador, with its winner performing ceremonial functions in the country.
Miss Agbani Derego became the winner of the MBGN crown in 2011 and later went on to win the Miss World pageant in 2011.
She became the first black African to wear the coveted crown.
Miss Earth Pageant
Miss earth-Nigeria is an annual beauty pageant in Nigeria to select its representatives to the international Miss Earch pageant with the theme “Beauties for a course” it is orgnaised by AMC productions and began sending representatives to Miss Earth, a year after the international pageant was established in 2001. The National Director for Nigeria to Miss Earth is Ibinabo Fiberesima.
Miss ECOWAS PEACE PAGEANT
The Miss ECOWAS Nigeria pageant is a wholly intellectual pageant that produces two delegates who will move on to represent Nigeria alongside delegates from other ECOWAS member states at the international ECOWAS peace pageant endorsed by the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja, among several other pageants.
A recent report has revealed that there are over 1000 beauty pageants in Nigeria and they have been keeping lots of Nigerian Youths busy with monetary gains for both the winners and the organizers through the sale of forms, endorsements and sponsorships by corporate organizations.
Meanwhile Nigeria’s humour merchant, Basketmouth who is one celebrity that is not known for holding his tongue has criticized the high number of beauty pageants in Nigeria. He recently slammed the ridiculous beauty pageants in the country.
He said: “it started with Miss Nigeria and MBGN, now we have the following Miss Comely Queen Nigeria, Face of Unity Nigeria, Miss Heritage Beauty pageants, Miss Tourism Nigeria, Miss Ideal Face of the Globe, Miss Teen World Super Model, Miss Dazzle Nigeria, Queen of Aso Rock and Miss Grand Nigeria.”
Others are: “Miss VIP Nigeria, Miss Ambassador for Peace Nigeria, Queen of Trust beauty Nigeria, Face of Nigeria, Miss Global beauty pageant, Sisi Oge beauty pageant, Miss Esquisite, Miss Olokun, etc.”
He noted that “very soon you will hear of Miss Pretty Feet Nigeria, Miss Long Neck pageant, Miss High Heels Nigeria, Miss Fresh Lap pageant, Miss No Hair for leg Nigeria pageant, Miss pointed Boobs Nigeria, Miss No Stretch Marks for Body etc, just watch,” he posted in his instagram.
A showbiz personality in Port Harcourt Prince William Atari has called on stake holders and the relevant authorities to check the proliferation of beauty pageants in the country and to regulate the activities of the organizers so as to bring sanity to the sector and maintain the high standards of which beauty pageants are known for.
The family of veteran Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie, has dismissed viral rumours circulating on social media claiming that the film icon is dead.
Reacting to the reports in a video shared on his Instagram page on Tuesday, the actor’s eldest son, Leo Edochie, described the claim as false and malicious.
“I’ve been receiving text messages and calls over the nonsense post by some people that our father, Chief Pete Edochie, is dead. It is a lie from the pit of hell,” he said.
Leo added that the actor is alive and in good health, condemning those responsible for spreading the rumour.
“Our father is alive, hale and hearty. And if you wish someone dead, two things usually happen. The person will live very long and you will die before him. Shame to all of you,” he said.
The rumour had sparked concern among fans before the family’s clarification.
Nollywood veteran actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde is making her directorial debut with a different and sharper focus. Speaking recently with Newsmen,, the screen icon highlighted a glaring void in the industry’s catalogue, which is the authentic reality of mother-daughter relationships.
“We don’t have too many films that explore or showcase the relationship between mothers and daughters,” Omotola said during the interview, describing the subject as something deeply personal to her.
Speaking honestly about raising her first daughter, she admitted she had only one mode at the time, which was discipline. “I didn’t do a good job,” she said plainly, explaining that she understood motherhood strictly through control, not softness or emotional openness.
At the centre of Mother’s Love is Adebisi, a sheltered young woman from a wealthy home whose life is shaped by her father’s rigid control. Her first taste of freedom comes through NYSC, where distance from home allows her to begin discovering who she is outside her family’s expectations. She forms a friendship with a young man from a more modest background, and through him, starts to see the world and herself differently.
But the emotional core of the film isn’t Adebisi’s rebellion. It’s her mother. Long after being presented as quiet and compliant, she slowly reveals a resolve when her daughter’s safety and future are threatened. As secrets surface and buried grief comes into view, Mother’s Love becomes less about youthful independence and more about maternal sacrifice, unspoken trauma, and the emotional costs of survival inside a patriarchal home.
The Tide Entertainment reports that the film doesn’t shy away from weighty themes by including PTSD, unresolved grief, and social inequality at the centre of the story. It is far removed from the soft-focus sentimentality that often defines Mother’s Day-style narratives.
It also marks Omotola’s directorial debut, a significant moment considering how long she has shaped Nollywood from the front of the camera. She stars in the film alongside a mix of familiar faces and newer talent, including Ifeanyi Kalu, Olumide Oworu, and Noray Nehita.
Beyond the film itself, Omotola’s interview touched on a tension that has been simmering in Nollywood for a while now: how movies are marketed in the age of TikTok. Addressing the growing expectation for actors and filmmakers to create viral dance content to promote their work, she didn’t mince words. The pressure, she said, is exhausting and unnatural.
For her, the industry wasn’t meant to function this way. Still, she was careful not to judge anyone else’s approach. Everyone invests differently, carries different risks, and should be allowed to promote their films however they see fit.
“Do whatever you can do. It’s exhausting, it’s not natural. For me, the film industry is not supposed to be like that. We are encouraging nonsense if we are doing that. It doesn’t mean that whoever is doing it is wrong.”
Her comments arrive not long after the public back-and-forth between Kunle Afolayan and Funke Akindele over marketing styles, a debate that quickly turned into a proxy war between prestige storytelling and viral strategy. Omotola’s stance sits somewhere calmer. She understands the shift social media has brought, but she’s also clear about her own boundaries.
Omotola’s critique about the lack of mother-daughter stories isn’t unfounded. In Nollywood, mothers often exist as symbols rather than people. They’re either saintly figures who pray endlessly for their children or villains whose cruelty drives the plot forward. What’s missing is intimacy, the negotiations, and the regrets. The love that exists alongside resentment and misunderstanding.
Films rarely sit with the emotional complexity of women raising daughters in systems that also failed them. There’s little room for mothers who made mistakes but are still trying, or daughters who love their mothers while questioning the damage they inherited. Mother’s Love attempts to occupy that space, offering a more grounded portrayal that reflects lived experience rather than archetypes.
That’s where the film’s potential impact lies, in the decision to centre a relationship that Nollywood has largely flattened. If it works, it could open the door for more stories that treat motherhood as a lived, evolving reality rather than a fixed moral position.
Mother’s Love, directed by and starring Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, had its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025. The film is set for a nationwide cinema release in Nigeria on March 6, 2026.
Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes becomes Nollywood’s highest-grossing film of 2025, earning ?1.77bn in under four weeks.
Multi-award-winning actress and producer Funke Akindele has done it again, and this time, the numbers speak louder than applause.
Her latest film, Behind The Scenes, has officially emerged as the highest-grossing Nollywood film of 2025, pulling in an astonishing ?1.767 billion in less than four weeks.
The Tide Entertainment reports that Funke Akindele Makes Box Office History as Behind The Scenes Crosses ?1.77bn
Earlier in its release cycle, the film’s distributor, FilmOne Entertainment, revealed that Behind The Scenes smashed five opening-weekend records, including the highest single-day gross ever recorded on Boxing Day, with ?129.5 million in one day. That announcement already hinted that something unusual was unfolding.
Reacting to the milestone, FilmOne described the moment as both surreal and communal, crediting audience loyalty for pushing the film to the top spot once again as the number-one movie of the weekend. And that sentiment feels accurate. This wasn’t just ticket sales; it was momentum.
What makes this achievement even more striking is that Behind The Scenes is Funke Akindele’s third film to cross the ?1 billion mark. Before now, there was A Tribe Called Judah, and then Everybody Loves Jenifa, a film that didn’t just open big, but went on to become the highest-grossing Nollywood film of all time. At this point, it’s no longer a fluke. It’s a pattern.
Part of Behind The Scenes’ success lies in strategy. The film enjoyed advanced screenings on December 10 and 11, quietly building curiosity and conversation before its nationwide release on December 12. By the time it officially hit cinemas, audiences already felt like they needed to see it.
Then there’s the cast. The film brings together a lineup that feels deliberately stacked: Scarlet Gomez, Iyabo Ojo, Destiny Etiko, Tobi Bakre, Uche Montana, and several others. Familiar faces, strong fan bases, and performances that kept word-of-mouth alive long after opening weekend.
Still, beyond timing and casting, there’s something else at work here. Funke Akindele understands Nigerian audiences. Their humour, their pacing, their emotional buttons. She doesn’t guess, she calculates, experiments, listens, and refines. That understanding has slowly turned into box-office dominance.
Behind The Scenes crossing ?1.77 billion isn’t just another headline; it’s confirmation. Funke Akindele has moved from being a successful actress to becoming one of the most reliable commercial forces Nollywood has ever produced. Three-billion-naira films don’t happen by luck. They happen when storytelling, business sense, and audience trust align.
And right now, that alignment seems firmly in her hands.
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