People don’t understand feminism – Chidinma Aaron

Chidinma Leilani Aaron emerged as Miss Nigeria 2018 in November last year. The 42nd Miss Nigeria is a graduate of Business Administration from Leeds City University, Ibadan. In this interview, the beauty queen talks about her project during her reign, her passion to reach girls in rural areas as well as the issue of feminism. […]

Chidinma Leilani Aaron emerged as Miss Nigeria 2018 in November last year. The 42nd Miss Nigeria is a graduate of Business Administration from Leeds City University, Ibadan. In this interview, the beauty queen talks about her project during her reign, her passion to reach girls in rural areas as well as the issue of feminism.

DT: Outside of Miss Nigeria, what’s your life like?

Chidinma: Outside of Miss Nigeria, I am an entrepreneur, business administrator and a chef. I am also currently undergoing my national youth service.

DT: How has this crown changed your life?

Chidinma: This crown has given me a voice; it has put me in a position where I can actually do more for women and girls in my country Nigeria. I am able to bring about positive change in areas such as education, which I am really passionate about, and also healthcare and different societal issues affecting women and girls like sexual abuse, harassment and getting the proper word out on feminism.

DT: Is that a difficult thing to do considering the sort of controversy that’s thrown up recently with Chimamanda Adichie and Hillary Clinton? Is that a difficult terrain to navigate?

Chidinma: It is really not a difficult terrain to navigate because the feminist movement is not what most people perceive it to be, I feel it has been misconstrued a lot in current day Nigeria. Feminism in my own context would mean giving men and women opportunities for equal outcome. It is not women going after men or trying to rub shoulders with any other gender; that’s not what it is about. I feel we need to get the word out on what feminism is all about. Feminism is something even the men should support.

DT: Has there been any queen before you who might have inspired you or who you look up to?

Chidinma: There are several queens before me who inspired me, but there are few I look up to. These include Miss Nigeria 2013 – Ezinne Akudo Anyaoha: she did really well in her time, and she’s a feminist. Miss Chioma Obiadi: a very strong queen that I look up to. Also, we have Agbani Darego who represented Nigeria several years ago and did us proud. These are queens I look up to.

DT: Are you under pressure to be like them?

Chidinma: Not at all. I am not under any pressure. There is a reason I was selected in the first place. Part of the reason I was selected would be that I am a queen, basically. It is not a competition, as far as I’m concerned, between this woman and that woman. That’s another thing we are trying to kick against; women should celebrate each other, not compete with each other. I am not competing to be better than them or less than them. No, I am working at my own pace to achieve the dreams I have for my reign so that at the next handover, I will be standing on that podium, happy about all I’ve achieved. And I envision being received with smiles and happy faces and people who have been part of my project through the year and who are proud to see how far I’ve come.

DT: What’s the project of your reign, and how far has it come along?

Chidinma: The project of my reign is centred on girls’ empowerment; I will be doing this via the Green Girl Project, which is a project Miss Nigeria Organisation started three years age. The organization believes in sustainable projects, hence I will be continuing the Green Girl Project under which I will be going to several secondary schools across Nigeria, speaking to girls about sexual abuse, harassment and feminism.

I am particular about going to the interiors because I feel they don’t really have a lot of traction. So I want to reach them because I feel they should be fed this information too; they shouldn’t be left out. I also have a book project coming up with Miss Nigeria Organization, but I wouldn’t want to talk too much about it now.

DT: Are there rules to being a queen? Things you can do, or not allowed to do? For instance, can you be caught not smiling in public? Can you eat in public?

Chidinma: [chuckles] Smiling comes naturally.

DT: You never know – a camera might be pointed at you somewhere.

Chidinma: Smiling comes naturally, but we, as human beings, are not always smiling, are we? So it is okay not to be smiling sometimes. It is totally fine. I wouldn’t say I have rules, I’d say there are etiquete -related thing I should know to do – in carriage, in posture. I can eat outside, but then I have to be courteous.