Lena Ama Acquah, 22, set out on a journey about three months ago with ten other ladies. It was a competitive journey for the title of the most beautiful lady in Ghana -- as decided by TV 3’s audience. Known during the period of the programme as Ama, she went through all the hoops and made it as ‘Ghana’s Most Beautiful’, leading with about 30,000 votes more than her closest rival, the Volta Region’s Esinu. Her consistent lead during the last 3 weeks of the competition stamped her passport to victory, but her failure to recite the national pledge and her inability to answer some questions on the last day of the contest put a dampener on her victory.
Luckily, her walkover win had been signed sealed and delivered and majority of Ghanaians were in love with her affable nature. She displayed her talents through acting and singing and her most favorite was the “Osofo Moko” (or fake priest) act, which was curious, considering the fact that she dates a pastor. Sunday, April 8, 2007 is a day Ama says she will never forget. But she doesn’t want to relive it (save for the fact that she won a car). Explaining her second rate performance on the night of the finals, Ama told JIVE that the nerves got in the way and her tongue just got tied. “I couldn’t believe I wasn’t able to say it. I know it (the national pledge),” she says. “I’ve said it several times before I just don’t know what happened… Can you believe that I was rushed to the hospital right afterwards? All throughout the show, I had serious heartburn and I felt like I was going to pass out.”
So frayed were her nerves that she couldn’t even it on the day of the finals. “Even when I was doing the ‘Osofo Moko’ enactment, I cut it short because I was out of energy,” Ama says. She was so ashamed of herself for not being able to say the pledge that even when her name was mentioned as the winner, it didn’t sink in until all her friends shouted her name onstage. Speaking with a smile of contentment on her face, she said: “I’ll be very frank, I don’t know what I have that people liked, maybe it was something I did or just the way I am. But all I know is that what’s written is written. I believe God wanted me to win and thanks to Him and the people who voted, I did. I know I did not do well that day, but at the same time the car came to me.”
Being an only child, the most challenging experience during the contest was a daily one: having to live with 10 other ladies in one house. Besides that, she was pretty much friends with everyone. In the house, she felt most threatened by Sim and Esi. When Sim left the house, it was one less contender to deal with – Esi, who kept her closely ‘marked’. So when she failed to recite the national pledge, she thought she had lost out to her rival. So she was pleasantly surprised when the verdict went in her favour.
With her victory, Ama says, she is going to start working soon: drawing attention to the plight of street children (with support from TV and Onetouch). As she prepares to kickstart her campaign, there are a few minor issues Ama needs to grapple with: she can’t wear a pair of jeans anymore because she “now represents Ghanaian beauty.” She is also a bit disturbed that she can’t go anywhere unnoticed and she might not able to jump on a ‘trotro’ anytime soon.
But then, why does she want to do that? After all, she has a brand new ‘Yaris’.
Winifred hMensa
