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November 18 LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigerian Agbani Darego's victory in the Miss World contest has given her country a much-needed reason to celebrate. The news of Darego's crowning -- the first black African to win the international beauty title in its 51-year history -- dominated the front pages of Nigeria's newspapers on Sunday. Gone were the usual stories of spiralling ethnic and religious violence, such as the aftermath of last month's army massacre of hundreds in central Nigeria, a recent spate of controversial Islamic sharia court sentences and accounts of armed robberies. Instead, the face of Darego, 18, chosen from among 93 contestants in the pageant beamed to a projected global television audience of 1.2 billion on Friday, smiled down from news stands. "Things have been so bad lately, it takes your mind off of things, it's a great distraction," Lagos doctor Patrick Nwagbogu said. Nwagbogu said the pageant in Sun City, South Africa -- which for the first time allowed audience voting -- helped highlight the gains Nigeria had made since military rule ended in May 1999. "Nigeria's winning does not surprise me at all," he said. "I was at a cyber cafe on Friday night and there was a 50-long queue of people lining up to cast their vote for this young girl. It's incredible. "With the internet and GSM phones so many people can communicate with the outside world. That has so many implications and we're seeing it clearly with Miss World." Guy Murray-Bruce, organiser of the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant which sent Darego to the Miss World contest, predicted her win could give rise to a Nigerian modelling industry, creating opportunies for young women in Africa's most populous country of more than 110 million. With officials saying half of Nigerians are unemployed, some female university graduates resort to prostitution, other women become prisoners to human trafficking rings in Europe and neighbouring countries. "I think it will create opportunities for other women," Murray-Bruce told Reuters in an interview at the weekend. "Suddenly the world sees Nigerian as a place where you have beautiful women. I think Nigeria is finally on the world map in a positive manner." He said Darego was already blazing a trail for Nigerian women having already signed a contract with Donald Trump's New York modelling agency after finishing in the top 10 at the Miss Universe pageant in May. She has also catwalked with supermodel Naiomi Campbell in Spain. The Nigerian government -- still struggling to deliver "democracy dividends" -- is also keen to cash in on Darego's success. The first lady and two governors have planned receptions for her. "Plans were also said to be in the pipeline by government to appoint the new queen an ambassador," the Vanguard newspaper reported on Sunday. At her crowning, Darego was keen to stress she intended to carry on her studies to become a computer scientist as well as carrying out her Miss World duties.

Courtesy of Reuters