Chidimma Adetshina, who made history as first runner-up at Miss Universe 2024, has announced she is stepping away from pageantry to focus on her law degree.

The Nigerian beauty queen, who currently holds the titles of Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 and Miss Universe Africa and Oceania 2024, made the announcement in her first interview since the global competition in Mexico.

“I am done with pageants,” she said. “I feel like I really did well, I made myself proud, I made Nigeria proud, and that’s really what I wanted.”

Ms Adetshina, who relocated from South Africa to Nigeria earlier this year, faced significant challenges during the competition, including a health scare just days before the preliminary rounds.

“They told me that I had to choose to go to the hospital and not participate,” she said. “After all the things I’ve been through, I was like ‘no, let me walk that stage.'”

Her journey to representing Nigeria was not without controversy. She faced social media backlash both in South Africa, where she previously lived, and in Nigeria.

“I already knew that accepting this invitation was going to be like another big thing,” she said. “I’m really glad that I never listened to social media and just really followed what was in my heart.”

A former Western Province netball athlete, Ms Adetshina began participating in pageants at age four but only started taking them seriously in 2017, inspired by Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters’ Miss Universe victory.

Her move to Nigeria came unexpectedly. “I remember in the beginning of the year I was like ‘I need to go to Nigeria… I don’t know how and when,’ and God said ‘I’m going to show you how.'”

Now settled in Nigeria, she plans to complete her final year of law school. “It’s time to seek other potentials within myself,” she said.

To aspiring beauty queens, she leaves this advice: “The question is not who’s going to let me, it’s who’s going to stop me.”