CAMEROON’S 2008 TOURISM PAGEANT, EPOSI IKOME, IS SET FOR ANOTHER BEAUTY CROWN

By Moki S. Mokondo in Buea for Mount Fako News Centre

The 2008 tourism pageant in Cameroon cum Miss South West Region Lux 2010, Christiana Eposi Ikome, would take the stage again on 10 April, 2010, this time to contest for the Miss Cameroon Lux 2010 title. Miss Ikome emerged winner of the 2010 Miss South West Region Lux Contest on 27 February. Her victory would take her to the Congress Hall, Yaoundé , where she would challenge 21 other regional beauty queens at the finals for the high-status National Miss Lux Crown.

Christiana Eposi Ikome would alongside two of her runners-up for the South West Regional contest, be flag bearers of the region in this year’s national beauty contest a cosmetic company, Lux, is organising. Three contestants each drawn from the Grand North (Far North, North, Adamawa Regions), Grand South (South and Centre Regions), Littoral, South West, North West, West and East Regions take part at the finals scheduled for 10 April, 2010.

Miss Ikome who was in Yaoundé recently for her Tele-voting footage has disclosed to Fako News Centre that her supporters are expected to vote by sending a mobile phone text message, Lux 12, to 8008. According to her, this exercise would contribute 30% to her total vote. She is however optimistic that she would bring another glory to the South West Region and the Fako people if all fairness is respected during the competition.

The beauty queen maintained that above all modalities for the contest, she has improved on her Mokpwe, the language of the Bakweri people of Fako Division. According to her, this was the roots to her failure in her first expedition in the Miss Cameroon Lux 2008 edition. The first time Miss Eposi Ikome appeared in a National Beauty Contest, she emerged overall 5th and many doubted if she was really from Fako since she could hardly express herself in Mokpwe in a show that was broadcast live on television.

Despite her failure in that contest, she did not kill her dreams of becoming a national beauty queen as that same year she participated in a regional beauty contest the ministry of tourism organised. She beat nine other beauties to represent the South West Region in the finals at Yaoundé. There, she out-smarted seven others and was crowned Cameroon’s Miss Tourism 2008 at Hotel Mont Febe on Saturday 27September, 2008.

The beauty pageant disclosed that she learnt her lessons during her first expedition and has since worked hard to improve on her knowledge on all aspects of Bakweri culture. She added that many blamed her then but failed to realise that she spent most of her life in the French speaking region of Cameroon where her father served as a military officer. They had just returned to her father’s native village of Bwiteva, a village in Buea Sub-Division, before she went for the contest. In the beauty contest organised in Cameroon, culture is a very important element that is considered. Contestants are expected to demonstrate a mastery of the cultural heritage of the region they originate from.

Miss Ikome holds a B.Ed degree in Education Psychology from the University of Buea 2009 class. She does not only demonstrate a show of intellect, beauty and