MISS GHANA O9 TAKES OFF IN WA (SHOWBIZ, BACK PAGE)

Story and Picture by
Chris Nunoo

The journey to the Miss Ghana and National Dance Championship ‘09 titles, took off at the Adonis cinema hall in Wa, the Upper West regional capital last Saturday with nine pretty ladies, mostly students from the Wa campus of UDS competing for the opportunity to represent the region at the national event.
Unlike in past Miss Ghana pageants, where the first two winners represented their respective regions at the national level, the trend has now changed. This time, the top three will be presented to the general public to vote by text to determine which two finally represent the Upper West Region during the grand finale in Accra.
At the end of last Saturday’s proceedings 20-year-old, Juliet Amoafoah Sarpong, rose above the other eight participants to clinch the ultimate. She was followed by Sherifa Simdi Amadu 21, at second place and Khalida Luqman, 20, at third. Each of them received 200 Ghana cedis.
In the dance category, girl dancer Suhida Issah, stood tall among nineteen young men to win the regional dance championship. Suhida Issah “hypnotised” the judges with her gruelling waist wriggling to call the bluff of the men to collect the 200 Ghana cedis as her prize. Alhassan Wizy who was the favourite of majority of the audience, placed second. He also took home 150 Ghana cedis while Moomin A Adams came third and took away 50 Ghana cedis.
Prior to the crowning of the beauty queens many members of the audience expected more from the contestants apart from the walk and question time segments. This time round the highlife dance segment was scraped.
If there was anytime that King Ayisoba did not quite click with his audience, it was at the Wa show where he featured as a side attraction. However, Kawastone, Sherifatu Gunu and dancers lived up to expectation and thrilled the crowd with some dancing skills and songs.
Despite the few organisational hitches, the event was accepted by many in Wa as very welcome because the municipality rarely witnessed such events and therefore it was not surprising to see most people including the Deputy Regional Minister, Cesar Kale and some District Chief Executives defying all odds to be part of the function.
For the after-party, all the beauty queens and a section of the audience moved to Wizzy Vills night club, which is gradually establishing itself as the number one entertainment centre in the Wa municipality, to climax the Upper West edition of the Miss Ghana and National Dance Championship with a party which was held into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
The Miss Ghana train which continues to the Upper East and Northern regions on June 26 and 27, 2009, is being sponsored by PHC Motors, DDP, Bonaqua, Labadi Beach Hotel, A B L, Dannys Decoration, GTV, Somovision, Soundcheck and Trendsetters .