Esther Adoo Gum, finest girl
in Nigeria Intl.: Plight of my
illiterate mother drives my
passion to educate the girl
child
If there is anything that is so dear to the
heart of the Finest Girl in Nigeria
International 2017, Miss Esther Adoo
Gum, it is to see that the girl child
acquires education no matter her status,
tribe, religious affiliation or clime. In some
sense, she is like Pakistan’s Malala, who
is passionate about giving educational
opportunities to girls in her country. In this
interview with Sunday Sun, the reigning
Finest Girl talks of her passion for
education and the propelling factor behind
this laudable passion.
Give us a “selfie” of your background…
God Almighty in His mercy and faithfulness
caused me to be born into the family Mr.
and Mrs. Jacob Gum from Logo Local
Government Area of Benue State. My father
is late. I had my early education at
Standard Nursery and Primary School,
Nyanyan, Abuja, after which I proceeded to
City Royal College, Nyanyan, and then
completed my secondary education at
NKST College, Mkar. I’m also a graduate of
Benue State University, where obtained a
degree in Mass Communication. I’m the
last of eight children consisting of six boys
and two girls.
Tell us how you became the Finest Girl in
Nigeria.
Well, I never really had a thing for pageants
initially. But while I was in the university
during our traditional week, I wore my
traditional attire and on getting to school,
people saw me and were excited about it.
They said I looked good and pretty in the
attire. One of the students suggested that I
should be the Kumase of CTS, BSU, which
is the Tiv Beauty Queen on campus. And
then, it was just two days to the event.
That was in 2015. I went into the contest
and to the glory of God, I won. From there,
I started developing passion for pageants. I
also went ahead and contested for the
national Kumase in 2016 and I won that
too. Then I contested for the Finest Girl in
Nigeria in 2017 and won too. When I won
the national Kumase, I discovered that
most of our girls don’t go out for fear of
failure. So, I said I was going to give it a
try. When I saw the advert regarding the
Finest Girl in Nigeria, it was quite big but I
wanted to give it trial. I went to Abuja. The
contest took place at Sheraton Hotel. And I
emerged among 36 contestants.
What is your experience as a beauty
queen?
Well, it’s really tough; it’s sweet, it’s sour.
You know, people have this very awful
impression about pageants and beauty
queens. Actually, some girls go into
pageants because they want access and
they use such access to engage in
misconduct. So, I wouldn’t blame people
for having that awful impression. But all the
while, I’ve been trying to erase that
impression that people have and revive the
good image of pageants in Africa and so
far, I believe that I’ve been able to do that a
little bit. And being a beauty queen is quite
challenging because sometimes you go out
to seek for sponsorship and people try to
take advantage of you. But I always tell my
fellow queens that that is not an excuse.
It’s just like a normal guy seeing you on the
road and he likes you and asks you out. It’s
up to you to accept or reject. And so, a lot
of people talk about the challenges involved
and to me, it’s not an excuse although it’s
challenging but you just have to do what
you have to do. People criticize you a lot
but if you know that you want and what you
are going after, then, I don’t think that
would be a challenge.
Talking about the difference you have tried
to make to ensure people don’t cast awful
aspersions on beauty queens, what exactly
have you done in that regard?
Throughout my reign from 2015 to 2016 up
to 2017, my offices have never recorded
any form of misconduct and I have tried to
reach out to so many orphanages and the
less privileged. I have done a lot of
projects to show people that this is what
pageants are supposed to be about –
supporting the less privileged.
You are a very young woman. Can you
give us an insight into the challenges that
you have faced in life so far?
Before I became a beauty queen, I had this
challenge of people trying to take
advantage of me. My dad was a wealthy
man but before I got into the university, I
lost him. And so, in the course of trying to
solicit for funds from his close friends, they
tried to take advantage of me. They were
giving me appointments at hotels where
they wanted me meet them. I was shocked.
I said, ‘This man is supposed to be my
late father’s friend, why is he asking me to
meet him at a hotel?’ So, I said to myself,
it’s not a do-or-die thing. I had to look for
other way to pay my bills. There are so
many challenges. People come after you,
they want to have one thing or the other.
You just don’t have to let them.
How was growing up like?
I was quite little when my father died.
Then, I never knew what the world was all
about. I had no worries at all. I was free.
And then, when I finished from secondary
school, I was just living with my mum and
my siblings. We are many like I said. We
are eight in number and it’s no joke at all.
And to the glory of God, all of us are now
graduates. It was quite difficult growing up.
Sometimes, I had to go to the school
management and appeal to them to allow
me take my examinations because most
semesters, I wouldn’t have the money to
pay. But I knew that there was a God and
He would definitely come to my aid one
day. And so, I didn’t have to misuse my
body or get school fees or any other thing.
My mum was quite supportive in terms of
food items. I never lacked food in school
but it was quite tough in school
moneywise. Losing a father is something I
wouldn’t wish for anyone because if I tell
you what I went through, you would not
believe it.
What lesson has life taught you?
Well, life has taught me to be patient. Life
has taught me to be persistent. Life has
taught me to be faithful and have hope
because life is full of challenges that you
can’t avoid.
What pet project are you currently working
on?
I have two pet projects which was recently
unveiled on April 14, this year titled,
“Educate a Child and ReachOut to Them.”
Educate a child is targeted at public
schools while Reach-out To Them focuses
on children in IDP camps.
What is the scope of this project?
Educate-A-Child is aimed at donating
learning and relief materials to public
schools across Nigeria. As for ReachOut,
we go to IDP camps to provide learning
materials and also organize seminars to
educate them, especially the girls and
women on the dangers of s3x, pregnancy
and abortion.
What exactly propelled you to take on that
project?
For the Educate-A-Child project, I was
inspired by the story of a young lady who I
know very well. When she was growing up,
her father preferred to sponsor the boys in
school while the girls were left at home.
The girls were not recognized or taken as
anything. But because she had passion for
education, she so much wanted to go to
school but her father wouldn’t let her go
even though he had the resources.
Meanwhile, the man had a very big orchard,
so she went there, plucked some oranges,
hawked them for a week; she got money
and registered herself in school, paid for a
uniform which was given to her with some
books.
But on the first day she went to school, her
father didn’t know. On arriving home, the
father saw her and was so furious, he gave
her the beating of her life, burnt her
uniform, tore the books, drove her away
and she slept outside for three days. And
even when the mother begged, he said he
would only take her back on the condition
that she would never ever go to school.
That woman happens to be my mother. My
mother is not educated. And that was why I
chose that project, to educate a child.
Educate-A-Child has a vision where every
individual is given the opportunity to get
quality education and I want to educate
girls that have issues like my mother’s
case.
If you were not a beauty queen, what
profession would you take to?
Well, I actually never thought of that
because while I was in school, I had a
different dream before going in for
pageants. When I went into pageants, it
was like I discovered myself, I discovered
my passion, I discovered what I love most
which is helping the less privileged. Even
before I became a beauty queen, I used to
do some of those things for the less
privileged. Sometimes when I have little
food, I share with friends. Sometimes, when
I had excess money even though I wasn’t
getting much, I used to share with some
who didn’t have much to sponsor
themselves in school. So, helping the less
privileged has been my passion all along.
Is the notion about s3xual harassment in
exchange to win pageants true?
It is not true at all. I’m saying so because I
have never experienced any of such. I
would say that the beauty pageant for the
Finest Girl in Nigeria was my toughest
conquest. When I was going for that
contest and coming from Benue State
where pageants are not so supported, I
spoke to some persons who discouraged
me to the point that I was weakened. But
my mum encouraged me. Though not
educated, she however understood things
about pageants. She had vowed to ensure
that all her children got education which her
father deprived her of and that’s why all
eight of us are graduates today. So, my
mum urged me to believe in myself and
that moral support strengthened me by the
time I got to camp and saw very beautiful
girls from wealthy homes. Most of those
girls had home based support and I was
just alone without any backing except that
of my mother. I followed the girls for some
time, pretending to be who I was not just
to save my face.
It started with the food we were served at
the camp; we ate pizza, noodle, shawarma
and stuff like that. And you know, I come
from Benue where we eat pounded yam and
so on, so I wasn’t comfortable with the
meals in the camp as I started purging after
two days. To that extent, I started
requesting for Semovita and lots of the
girls criticized me. However, I continued
with what I could eat satisfactorily because
I couldn’t cope with shawarma. There was
also the belief that you don’t show your
costumes to other contestants when you go
for general rehearsals. If you were a minute
late to rehearsals, you were also given one
form of punishment or the other. So, many
girls avoided the section whenever they
were late.
Others refused to do punishment meted to
them, but I observed mine. I did whatever I
was asked to do and obeyed all
instructions without the slightest idea that it
was counting for me. I was also friendly
and started doing my rehearsals before
other contestants as I didn’t know where to
hide and do so. I stood up for myself and
stopped pretending to be who I was not; I
rehearsed Idoma, Tiv and Igede dances of
the Benue people. And that attracted some
girls to me. At a point, they forgot my
name and started calling me the Benue girl
in camp. On the day of the event, no one
approached me neither did any of the girls
confided in me that the organizers
demanded anything from them. At Sheraton
Hotel where the final event took place, I
had no fan base among the audience like
the other girls but my performances during
the occasion built instant live supporters
for me.
I was aiming at the crown and did my best
to achieve it by using the stage to put up
credible performance which drew the
crowd’s attention to me in all the three
times I showed up. I won all the different
prizes including the one for obedience in
camp and to top it I was announced as the
winner of the contest. So I have never been
s3xually harassed in the industry.
