Nyekachi Douglas admits that she’s a very expressive person. Even on occasions when she tries to hide her emotions, she finds it difficult. No surprise then that Douglas, who represented Nigeria in this year’s Miss World pageant, displayed such excitement — unusual from a competitor — when Miss Jamaica Toni-Ann Singh was named Miss World 2019 on Saturday in London.

The glee with which Douglas greeted the announcement brought smiles to the faces of many, and won her admiration from Jamaicans who celebrated the victory that made Singh the fourth woman from this Caribbean island to win the prestigious crown.

But what exactly did Miss Nigeria say to Miss Jamaica during that frenzied moment on the Excel arena stage?

The Jamaica Observer put that question to the Nigerian, who placed in the top five and gained the title Miss World Africa, yesterday morning in a phone interview at her hotel.

“I was telling her ‘I told you’. And she was like ‘No, no’, and I said ‘You got this!’“ Douglas revealed.

“Everyone else but her knew that she was gonna take this. All the other girls there were like, girl you got this,” Douglas continued.

Asked why she reacted as she did at the result, Douglas said: “I don’t have any idea, and looking back at it I wished I had just waited 10 seconds until after she had the crown, after we had gotten off stage, to like jump like a crazy person. I didn’t even know; after it happened I was like, you should have kept it together.”

She said that backstage all the girls were telling Singh that she would win the crown, but Singh was convinced otherwise.

“Then, when we got on stage and they called her I went like ‘See, I told you’. I was so happy for her,” Douglas told the Observer, laughing as she recalled the moment.

The Nigerian was full of praise for Singh, describing her as a wonderful, God-fearing woman.

“She’s empowering on her own; She’s not just thinking about herself. I’m telling you, had it been someone else she would have been just as happy as I was and how everyone else was, and you can see the queen in her,” Douglas said.

“She’s going to carry that crown very well, and she’s going to represent all of us. Even when she speaks, she doesn’t speak only for herself, she speaks for every woman and you just feel that’s definitely something that we want to see, that’s somebody that we want to carry that crown. I can’t wait for her to start her reign. She’s going to be amazing, she’s gonna kick it. I can’t wait,” added Douglas, who became the first Nigerian since 2004 to be named Miss World Africa.

Reflecting on the pageant in general, Douglas said all the contestants developed a good relationship with each other.

“Every single one of us was trying to put everyone else up. When I came here I realised it was not a competition. It was a place where we could talk to each other, empower ourselves; learn how to make each other better, learn how to better influence the world. That’s what we did — we were not competing, we were empowering each other. Not once did anyone try to put anyone down or to say I am the best at this. No. We were all working together and we were all thinking about the emotions and the feelings and how we each can be better at everything that we do,” she said.

“For me, when I was back home watching Miss World I thought that I would not be perfect, that if I don’t do my hair and makeup every day then I can’t be queen or I can’t be anything. but I came here and realised they just want you to be yourself and love who you are, and that they really want you to just use that and influence the world,” said the beauty queen who was born in Ibaa, Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State.

“That is something that we need to let girls know, that this is not somewhere you can come and be pretty and all of that. this is somewhere where you can come and be yourself, and you can show how you want to help the world and learn from other people as well,” Douglas added.

“I’m so grateful; it’s a blessing to be here,” said the University of South Florida student who, when she’s not at school, lives in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.