There`s every indication that all is not well in the leadership of the nation`s oldest pageantry project, Miss Nigeria beauty contest owned by the Daily Times of Nigeria as the board has turned around to withdraw the hosting rights from the ex-beauty Queen, Chief (Mrs.) Nike Oshinowo Soleye who revived it from interregnum.
According to sources, the hosting right of Miss Nigeria has been withdrawn from Nike Oshinowo and the board of Daily Times made up of men have been holding meetings with the reigning Queen, Feyijinmi Sodipo, this much we can exclusively reveal. We gathered authoritatively that, the crises have been on for several weeks between Chief (Mrs.) Nike Oshinowo-Soleye and the Daily Times board led by Mr. Fidelis Anosike but the parties have been trying to patch up things.
Dependable sources who confided in us revealed that, no one can really say why the Daily Times board decided to sack the ex beauty Queen, Nike Oshinowo who has laboured hard and put all her goodwill on line in making sure that the show got back its lost glory but people in the know are of the opinion that, the board is threatened that, Mrs. Soleye is moving more than they expected and that in no time, she might become uncontrollable for the board.
What another school of thought is saying is that, it is likely that, the woman of substance, Mrs. Soleye might be remitting less than what the Daily Times board expected and the feelings that she`s smiling to the bank might have informed the sudden decision of cutting short her contract on the project.
All these are what a source who`s close to the board told us but in our usual manner of investigative journalism, we took the pain of getting across to concerned parties. First on the list of the people we spoke to was the woman at the center of it all, Mrs. Soleye who snarled at us and directed us to speak to somebody else close to her, `please am in a conference call, can`t you call somebody else close to me, she had told us. Who are you talking about ma, the story is directly about your contract with the Miss Nigeria organization and the moment she heard that, she cut off the line and never picked it again.
Then we sought audience with the managing director of Folio Communications, the controversial custodians of Daily Times of Nigeria owners of the Miss Nigeria title, Mr. Fidelis Anosike, in his words, `what do you mean by withdrawing the franchise from Nike Oshinowo, there`s nothing like that, Miss Nigeria is not a franchise company, Nike is part of the Daily Times close associates, she remains part of it if she wants to, so please don`t feed on us, stop writing rubbish about the Miss Nigeria and Daily Times brands, give us the chance to build it, please you guys should look elsewhere to source for scandal, nothing like that here`, he tried to cover up by begging the question.
We went further to talk to the reigning Queen whose ambition of touring the whole nation putting smiles on the faces of orphans through the help of the ministry of culture, tourism & orientation has been frustrated, according to the diploma graduate of Data Processing, Babcock University, the innocent girl who was meant to mark her 22nd birthday on May 3rd, 2012 was shocked when her madam called to tell her all is over, “I just couldn`t believe am hearing that, Anti Nike told me it`s all over, then she handed over my car to me and the next thing was the call from the Daily Times management, I`ve had a meeting with them and they told me we have another one next week (this week), look, am so confused, I don’t know what to do” she confessed.
When asked about what she thinks was the genesis of the problem, she has this to say, “ah, I won`t lie, I don’t know anything about that, what I know is that, some men have been calling me from the Daily Times for meetings”, her submission.
We were told reliably that, Chief (Mrs.) Nike Oshinowo was so pained that she contemplated seeking a legal redress but another source disclosed that, the mistake was hers from the beginning as she was not cautious enough to enter into a proper contractual terms that could span for years, all she did was jumping at it the offer the moment she was approached thinking the gentleman agreement would do and more so the fact that, she`s doing perfectly well to re-build the lost image of the pageant is a yardstick for the organizers to give her a chance.