“I masked it for years” – Former MBGN winner, Omowunmi Akinnifesi on being a virgin at 37 | Pulse Nigeria

In a world of sexual liberation, a former beauty queen is revealing her decision to stay as a virgin after so long of masking her truth.

Choosing to “come out” with her truth on her 37th birthday on December 4, 2024, Omowunmi Akinnifesi who is a graduate of Geography and Regional Planning from the University of Lagos made a video and posted it on her YouTube page.

Titling it, “The walk in purity | A Sacred Vessel”, Akinnifesi explains that she is choosing to “stand apart—proudly, boldly, and with faith” and urged other women to join in the movement of “living in purity”.

The movement which she tags, “Sacred Vessels”, she believes, will help women who can relate to her story form a sisterhood of faith, strength, and consecration.

“Things are very different now,” she begins. “The way women are, it’s almost as if we don’t even understand our value anymore and our morals.”

Noting that her decision to keep herself began when she was 18, the beauty queen-cum-serial entrepreneur said, “Personally, I had a covenant with God when I was 18 about keeping myself.“

She also adds that there was nobody around her to properly mentor and guide her on the path she chose. “People say celibate but I’ve never done it before. But there was nobody there for me. I spent all of my 20s making mistakes, adjusting and doing what I knew best.“

Such a decision does not come without its own challenges, as she reveals that she felt ashamed and embarrassed for many years. “Because I have kept myself, I walked in shame for a very long time. I was actually very ashamed of it.“

“I had friends that I couldn’t talk to. When I finally spoke to them, they would laugh at me. And then even worse, the stories I would hear about myself: I dated this person or I was with this person—those stories—would you believe that, I actually didn’t mind those stories. Because it helped mask the real me.”

Omowunmi Akinnifesi was crowned Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria at the age of 18 in 2005. She went on to represent Nigeria at the Miss World 2005 beauty pageant in China.