Amid all the talks about Shatu Garko, Nigeria’s first hijab-wearing model to be crowned Miss Nigeria in 2021; it is worthy of note that Faith Ihediwa, a final year student of the University of Lagos studying English, was crowned Miss Blind Nigeria in 2019.
In an interview with The Nation published on New Year day, Ihediwa gives an insight into her world.
Asked how she won the beauty pageant, she said, “I competed with all the visually impaired ladies in Nigeria from the different states in the country. It was a very interesting and memorable experience for me and the ladies. They all came to Lagos for the competition and the experience is something that I treasure so much. And by the grace of God, I emerged as winner at the end of the day.”
Ihediwa described her journey as a beauty queen as “awesome and quite memorable.”
On her pet project, she said, “My aim is to go to the rural areas to bring in the visually impaired one, motivate them and give them a sense of belonging. Most parents believe that the moment your child is blind, the child is useless. The child for them is worth nothing to them and the society. That is not the case and we need to change that mindset. So, I would be going around to educate them, champion the cause of visually impaired people especially the young ones and let them know that the child is a treasure; you can get something very unique and great from the child.”
Ihediwa revealed that she lost her sight at the age of 15 immediately after her senior school certificate examination at Flourish College, Ketu, Lagos.
The beauty queen said she wants to be a professor of English Language, adding that she draws inspiration from the late Chinua Achebe and nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka.
“By the grace of God, I also want to be an author, to write books. That is why I am into writing poems. I have numerous poems that I have written and also showed some lecturers in the university and they have been approved by them,” she said.
Ihediwa has not had a successor since she won the beauty contest in 2019.
