The third edition of Silverbird‘s Mr Nigeria pageant went down on Saturday, October 29, 2011 with last year’s winner Kenneth Okoli passing the crown to Deji Bakare, making him ‘the most desirable man in Nigeria’.
The event which created a lot of buzz over the last two weeks held at the Silverbird Galleria attracting a huge turnout as the floor and staircases of the venue were well occupied by guests and many ‘onlookers’. It was a night of manly show-offs; muscles, six-packs abs and cute faces, so as expected the crowd was dominated more by women than men.
Anybody who was expecting the pageant to be as glamorous as the female version – Most Beautiful Girl In Nigeria would have been totally disappointed. The organization and effort put into the Mr Nigeria pageant was nothing compared to the MBGN.
The venue was an absolute no-no as they were only about 50 seats available, 60 per cent of guests had no choice but to stand and cheer, hence the staircases of the galleria being occupied.
The anchor of the night, Munachi (a former MBGN queen herself) was far from a good host; the model-rapper lacked charisma and poise as she often fumbled her lines.
According to the contents in the event’s brochure, the pageant was meant to field four judges – Joseph Benjamin, Nadaya Letova, Kelechi Amadi-Obi and Ms Ladi Ene-Garba. But neither actor/show host Benjamin nor photographer Amadi-Obi showed up. A makeshift judge Baxter Slaton was added to round off the panel to three judges.
Performances were nothing out of the usual as JJC, Eva and Chidinma set the guest in the right mood with musical interludes.
After the Swim and Evening wear appearances and ‘Question and Answer’ session, the judges narrowed down the contestants to just five – Deji Bakare, Joseph Agossa, Bandele Adebule, who by the way received the highest cheers from the crowd at any point, Melvin Oduah and Chucks Obichukwu.
Fourth runner up went to Joseph Agossa, third runner up to Bandele Adebule, Second runner up to Chucks Obichukwu. The second position was given to Melvin Oduah, leaving Deji Bakare to be pronounced as Mr Nigeria.
Other awards like Mr Photogenic, Mr Sports, Mr Amenity, Strongest Man, Mr Smart, Mr Talented, Mr Physique, and Mr Personality went to Henry Ojini, Chidi Onuike, Alex Uriesi, Oluwagbemiga Adetuberu, Ikorishor Ajabi, Deji Bakare, Ugochukwu Uzowuihe and Ayomikun Odunwole respectively.
‘Wow, I’m grateful. I really am’, Bakare said when he was pronounced winner.
The show was then called to an end but it wasn’t over, as one of the contestants who obviously not happy with the results showed his disapproval as he ranted noisily in the make-shift dressing room. But after the other contestants calmed his nerves down, all was back to normal.
The new Mr Nigeria Deji Bakare, is a rapper-singer who had worked for years, unsuccessfully, to build a music career both as a solo artiste and as member of a group. Popularly called Dej-1, he parted ways with the group Reprezent to go solo many years ago. He had also, at different times, worked in hospitality, managing his father’s hotel business in Lagos.
By winning the competition, Deji Bakare gets the grand prize of N1M (One million Naira) and a brand new car. In addition, he will also win a trip to Sao Tome and Principe including 5 nights at the Pestana Hotels, an Ipad 2 and Blackberry Bold 9900. He will also go on to compete in the Mister World 2011 pageant.
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