By: Natasha Archary
Will Chidimma represent Nigeria at Miss Universe 2024 with a criminal case against her mother still pending?
The 23-year-old law student whose birth was registered in South Africa through alleged fraudulent means, was crowned Miss Universe Nigeria on 31 August.
This was after organisers of the pageant extended an invitation to Chidimma to partake in the contest after she faced controversy as a finalist in the Miss SA 2024 pageant due to her Nigerian surname and questions around her nationality.
Miss Universe participants are crowned in their respective countries and will go onto compete at the pageant in Mexico on 16 November.
Despite her crowning almost a month ago, Chidimma has not been mentioned in a list of crowned Miss Universe 2024 contestants, published by The National News.
Rules for eligibility in the Miss Universe pageant states that each delegate must be a citizen of the country she represents.
Delegates must provide documented proof of citizenship in the country they represent. This could involve birth ceritificates, passports or other official documents.
While not explicitly stated, many countries conduct background checks on potential delegates to ensure they don’t habe any criminal records or controversies that could tarnish the pageant’s image.
With a criminal case against her mother still pending, it remains to be seen if Chidimma will be representing Nigeria in the Miss Universe 2024 pageant.
The Miss Universe hopeful doesn’t have Nigerian citizenship, although her father is Nigerian.
The South African Department of Home Affairs issued Chidimma Adetshina’s mother a letter to explain how she came to be in possession of the South African ID which was used to register her daughter at birth.
This after the Department found prima facie evidence that fraud may have been committed by Adetshina’s mother, as the ID that was used was allegedly stolen from a South African mother.
In an update to the investigation into Adetshina’s citizenship, the Department shared that a tracing process was followed to identify the Home Affairs officials who may have been involved in the alleged fraud.
One of the officials has since passed on and the Department is currently investigating two other officials who may have been involved.
