Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, has challenged women to always be responsible, and to use their positions to positively impact on the society and the less privileged.

She gave the advice on Sunday in Abuja, at the Miss United Nations Nigeria Pageant 2015, while congratulating Miss Precious Chikwendu, who won the 2014 edition of the pageant in Kingston, Jamaica.

Miss Vivian Nnamani, who represented the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) emerged as Miss United Nations (Nigeria) while Miss Kessy Isong, representing Akwa Ibom State, emerged as her first runner-up at the pageant.

The winners are expected to go home with a cash reward and a brand new car.

The pageant had a category for singles, married women, single mothers and teens, because of its belief that every woman has a voice at any stage of her life.

Winners of the teens and married women categories would be further groomed and would join Miss United Nations (Nigeria) to represent Nigeria at the main Miss United Nations Pageant holding in July in Kingston, Jamaica.

The first lady expressed optimism that such pageants would enable contestants develop their personalities and make them stronger and passionate to positively impact on the society.

According to her, Chikwendu brought honor to Nigeria by virtue of her not only winning the crown, but the hosting right for the Nigerian version of the pageant.

She added that being a beauty Queen, was not easy as it seems, because the Queen has to be the best in whatever she does in order to achieve her goals.

The First Lady, who was represented at the occasion by Mrs Peace Nnaji added that the beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

This, she said, goes to show the need for women to always take care of their appearance.

“Remember, looking good is worth all the troubles, this is because beauty is the totality of the state of a woman’s health, physically, psychologically and mentally,” she said.

The First Lady also reminded the contestants that it was all right to lose, because there were no losers in pageants as all contestants were winners.

She also added that pageant was not only about winning the crown, but about what was done after the victory and charged the contestants to be responsible and useful to the society.

A character she said the outgoing Queen Chikwendu, had exhibited during her tenure.

Mrs Jonthan added that on her part, she had through her various NGOs and programmes, encouraged the girl-child and women generally, to be who they want to be and express their natural talents.

She assured the outgoing Queen of her continued support in her determination to make young women better citizens.

Using her Snow White Foundation NGO, the outgoing Queen, said she adopted a lifecycle approach of development, focusing its interventions on children, their families and the larger community with emphasis on the less privileged.

According to her, beauty transcends the physical, is not just an outward thing, but the inner qualities of an individual.

She maintained that beauty pageant had moved beyond wearing crown and cat-walking to impact positively on the society.

The outgoing Queen explained that the main focus of the pageant was to have volunteers who were ready to use beauty to add value to humanity.

She held that it focuses on volunteer work, adding that each contestant must have a background in volunteer work for her community.

“This sisterhood strengthens them to see beyond their immediate surroundings and situations and extends their services across the globe. As each contestant shares ideas of how she serves her community, more women would be strengthened and edified because their paths have crossed for good,” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that contestants at the 2015 Nigerian version of the pageant, were accessed on the basis of character, personality, conversational skill, beauty, fashion and intelligence.

Director Media and Publicity, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation and a former Minister of Aviation, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode who was one of the special guests at the pageant, described it as exceptional.

“This is a pageant with a difference. I am excited to be here and so proud about the contestants and the organisers of the event. I am particularly happy that the first lady said such nice things about the pageant and the organisers and her assurance of continues support,” he said

The 2015 Miss United Nations Nigeria Pageant, was sponsored by Chikwendu, the outgoing Queen.

•Photo shows Mrs Jonathan