The first runner-up at the recent Miss Universe pageant, Chidimma Adetshina has disclosed her next plans to prioritise her personal growth and career development more.
In an interview with BBC Pidgin, the Miss Universe Africa and Oceania stated that she intends to take a hiatus from pageantry in order to focus on her education and her developing acting and modeling careers.
“What’s next is not definitely pageantry, I am putting pageantry to bed right now but I am going to focus more on my education and obviously establishing who Chidimma is.
“I want to delve more into runways, more into acting and so many things that I would like to do and touch on actually really see where my potential can go to,” she noted.
Chidimma further said it “was an incredible moment” for her when she was announced as part of the top two in the contest.
She further revealed that her initial objective was to be included in the top 30 for the Miss Universe beauty pageant and did not imagine herself even being named in the top five of the pageantry.
View this post on Instagram
Her journey in the Miss Universe contest was not an easy one. It was fraught with challenges, one which seemed impossible to overcome.
Adetshina first participated in the Miss South Africa pageant because she was born and raised in South Africa. However, because her father is Nigerian, she faced racist abuse and trolling.
This compelled her to quit Miss South Africa and was subsequently invited by authorities in Nigeria to compete in Miss Universe Nigeria. She won and represented Nigeria at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City where she made history as she was named Miss Africa and Oceania and emerged second.
In response to claims that her mother, who is of Mozambican descent, had used identity fraud to get South African citizenship, the South African government said last month that they would deprive her of her identification documents.
Chidimma Vanessa Adetshina announces that she is quitting pageantry to focus more on her education. pic.twitter.com/CzqrFcMHY9
— Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) November 22, 2024
Adetshina and her mother have not responded to the accusations.
Authorities in South Africa noted that because Adetshina was still a baby, she was unable to take part in any purported fraud.
