All is set for the 9th edition of the annual Miss Virginity Beauty Pageant billed to take place on January 14, 2017 at Surulere Local Government Headquarters along Alhaji Masha Road, Onilegogoro area of Surulere in Lagos.

The beauty pageant is put together by The Virgins, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) with focus on keeping and celebrating virgin girls in Nigeria.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos yesterday to sensitive the media on their preparedness ahead of the pageant, Founder and National Coordinator of The Virgins, Princess Adediran Adunni, said that all arrangements have been finalised to achieve a hitch free show that will produce the 2017 Virgin Queen.

Princess Adediran said that this is the ninth year of the celebration of the Virgins, explaining that it was to come up on December 16, 2016 but was postponed to January 16 because of financial crunch.

She said this year’s participation is free and that parents and guardians are free to come with their children and wards to the venue on January 14.

“This year’s celebration is free and parents and wards can bring their children to the venue that very day. Those who cannot come can as well give letters of consent to their children. However, the basic requirement is three passport-size photographs with their names and phone numbers written at the back,” Adediran said.

Explaining the hurdles she passed through before putting this year’s ceremony, she said: “In fact, I made text messages for financial assistance to 200 fellow Nigerians asking for the sum of only N2,000 but only 20 people responded out of the 200 people I appealed to. But God assisted me further and a Chief of Staff whose name I will not mention for now sent the sum of N50,000. A female lawyer also sent the sum of N10,000. The actual amount to appreciate virgins is however, somehow countless.”

The founder of The Virgins, however, pointed out that if they get good sponsors with joint efforts from the public, parents, government, churches and international bodies to send Miss Virginity of the year to overseas; donate cars to both the overall winner and runners up and other facilitation for the Virgin Queen; mothers will no longer stand aloof on the participation of their God given children.

With such support and awareness, Adediran said that mothers will be serious in making sure that their daughters remain virgins, at least within the year the celebration was done.

Speaking further, Adediran said: “It is only a one day activity, which starts from 9 am as we don't encourage African time. For your information, we are no longer opening their laps to check their claims but we won’t divulge the fact. The Ministry of Education called me and said we can do only advisory roles or lectures on the dangers of loosing virginity before marriage. So we will just keep our plans secret before they come. The one we did in 2015 was like that. However, I heard that there is a machine that is made in China that will just tell instantly, if a girl is a virgin or not. May be God will make us get it one day before long.”

While lamenting the low level of support they got from the public, Adediran said that the NGO deserves more support.

According to her, only one Man of God in the person of His Eminence, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie of the Catholic Church, gave them support out of the 50 churches that they approached for assistance.

She however, added that the NGO got support from very few well-meaning Nigerians such as the former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who gave them financial assistance in 2008 amongst others.

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