Ghana's Most Beautiful 2011 winner, Akua Amoakowaa Mensah, has revealed how her relation to Ashanti Regional Chair of the NPP saved her defeat in the 2011 edition of the pageant.
According to her, harsh conditions she was going through in the early stages of her life made her doubt her competence and any chances she had at being the winner of Ghana’s Most beautiful, especially because votes counted a lot.
Speaking in an interview with Stacy Amoateng, the beauty queen revealed that after several weeks in the house, she almost gave up any hopes of winning because aside the owner of Ghallywood and his wife, she had no support from anyone to vote for her. Her immediate family members, were also not financially sound and could barely afford air time for voting.
Until she became number one on the chart, Akua had absolutely no idea her increased votes were resultant of her Uncle, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka. Chairman Wontumi’s influence and contributions.
It was at that point, she said, that she found out that Chairman Wontumi was her uncle.
“William Akufo, the owner of Ghallywood and is wife is an angel, they sent people to support me during the live shows and they took that risk. It was also around that time that I heard I had an uncle called Chairman Wontumi, who is the NPP Ashanti regional Chairman, so he was also supporting but I knew he was my uncle who was this rich but learnt he was voting massively for me. If you watched GNB you will realize a lot of people fell in love with me, so, I was always leading the charts when it comes to voting. I wept when I realised I was leading the charts the first week. It’s a miracle I won.”
She added; “I never wanted to win the Ghana’s Most Beautiful pageant, all I wanted to do was to be an actress, I just needed that platform to activate that dream. “She said
Akua also shared a story of the harsh conditions she and her family of 10 had to endure before breakthrough came.
Akua Amoakowaa Mensah revealed that growing up was a major challenge as her family could not afford accommodation at some point.
According to the beauty queen, her family of 10 lived in a single room and later moved to an uncompleted building after being chased out from a house they took care of for the landlord.
Narrating her childhood days, she said but for the intervention of one headmaster of Kings and Queens she would not have completed Junior High School. She said the headmaster was the one who took care of her after her previous school failed to allow her write her BECE because she failed to pay canteen fees.