Chidimma Adetshina has expressed her gratitude to Nigeria as well as Africa for their love and unwavering support after being crowned the first runner-up at the Miss Universe 2024 pageant held in Mexico.
Miss Denmark, Victoria Kjaer Theilvig, was crowned the winner, while Chidimma was named the titleholder for Miss Universe Africa and Oceania.
The 23-year-old’s journey to Miss Universe was not smooth sailing due to controversy surrounding her citizenship.
Chidimma competed in the 2024 Miss South Africa competition during which she was subjected to trolling and xenophobic due to her Nigerian heritage.
The beauty queen was born and raised in South Africa, but her mother is a Mozambican national and her father is Nigerian.
She was eventually forced to withdraw from the Miss South Africa pageant in August after the South Africa Home Affairs alleged that her parents had committed identity fraud to make her a South African citizen around the time of her birth.
Taking to Instagram, Chidimma revealed that stating that Nigeria helped her during a time when she was about to give up on her life.
