Ibinabo Fiberesima is not only an actress, director and producer all rolled into one in the Nollywood. She does more. The pretty lady, who was once the President of Guild of Actors detests devastation of the environment with a passion because of its adverse effect on people.
No wonder she embarked on a beauty pageant that promotes the preservation of mother earth tagged: Miss Earth. Read more about it below.
How has it been organising your annual events?
It’s not been easy at all. It has been tough because we are all used to Miss Universe and Miss World. So, with the Miss Uni-Earth, it is like a struggle, especially when you are trying to get sponsorship in Nigeria. You know in Nigeria, it is when you win international award or recognition that they reckon with you and whatever you propose becomes a big deal.
We made our top 10 for the first time last year and we are aiming for the crown this year. And being virtual too was also very challenging, but was quite fun.
You have been doing it for how long now?
19 years. And what is special about it, is the fact that you see young girls wanting to know about their environment, wanting to do their best to save their environment? For me, that is fulfillment, knowing that they could understand where we are environmentally deficient especially in Africa. We are not doing well. There are no laws governing our environment in Nigeria.
And there are so many things we need to upgrade concerning the environment. So, I am happy so far?
What is the vision behind Miss Earth?
It is basically preserving mother earth. You can see all the disasters happening everywhere in the world, even in Nigeria. We have floodings. There are things we need to do to prevent all these and it is just us teaching young girls, and the young girls now teaching the world; that, you must preserve your environment.
This year, a girl who won, Gwenivere Chioma by name has advocacy on composing.
She is telling you that instead of throwing your food out when you don’t need it, you could decompose it and use it to plant a tree in your environment. Another lady who made the top 10 list also is writing a book on the environment. They want to do extraordinary things. They want to teach people things; like “don’t use your plastic, stop plastic use, if you must then, it must be recyclable. You must recycle what you use. Don’t throw it out. Because it will eventually end up in our landfill site and it never decomposes. So, that is all it is. It is all about the environment, 100% environment.
What does any winner in Nigeria stand to gain?
You will participate in the Global competition. That is why I said the Queen last year made the top 10 globally. She came back and she wrote a book.
She has her foundation now, “Beyond Garland Initiative” and it is about the environment. When the pandemic started, she was on the street teaching people how to keep their environment clean, teaching people how to use hand sanitizer.
It’s all about preaching. Everything we do is strictly about the environment, but you have to be pretty too because it is a beauty pageant.
Tell us about the last event, how did it go?
The last event was very challenging because it was virtual. We started off with COVID Craze Fashion. We wanted to create an outfit that people should wear during this pandemic. And they all created amazing outfits. Then, we went on to the regular; swimming suit, evening gown e.t.c We gave them time to record themselves in their homes with a white background and they sent the video to us. We got the judges to come on zoom and we played the video for them to watch and the judges scored them.
And it was quite challenging because of Nigeria’s network, but I am happy we were able to go through it and yes we have a winner today.
When was it done?
We were all over. In fact, the winner was Miss Enugu and she is in Enugu. We have girls from all over Nigeria. They all just submitted their videos and we had a zoom meeting with them, and the judges interviewed them and scored them. The show was quite nice and amazing.
