How three women emerged ‘Mothers of the Year,’ win trip to Dubai

Being a fit, smart and fun mother has earned Joy Obieze, Ivbade Odigie and Oluchukwu Rose Igwe an all-expenses-paid trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and one year’s supply of milk.

The women emerged winners recently in a keen contest that attracted over 300,000 entries, which were screened and narrowed down to the top six contestants, to select the Mum of the Year 2022.

The campaign, which started with a call for members of the public to nominate any mother or mother figure deserving of a much-needed vacation, an all-expenses-paid trip to Dubai, an amazing travel destination, has been on since 2016 with just one mum as the winner enjoying the trip.

However, as the milk brand clocked 30 years in 2018, more winners were recognized for the star prize, taking the number to three mothers, who were eligible to travel to Dubai with two family members.

At a colourful grand finale in Lagos anchored by Bukunmi Adeaga-Ilori, aka Kiekie, Chris Wulff-Caesar, marketing director, FrieslandCampina, sub-Saharan Africa cluster, said: “Motherhood can be a thankless job and even when mothers are appreciated, one can never repay them for all they do. This is the reason we created the Mum of the Year campaign, to show appreciation for mothers or mother figures and give them their well-deserved rest and pampering.”

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On the same note, Gloria Jacobs, the marketing manager, said the organisation allows mums to actually enjoy themselves, care for themselves, and relax. When mums are healthy and happy, she said, the family is healthy and happy.

Reeling out modalities for the contest, she stated: “There was three to 12 weeks’ promotion, where they get to buy specified milk. They could nominate themselves or get nominated by anyone, maybe their friends, family, kids, and get someone to write a compelling note about why they deserve an all-expenses-paid trip as a mother or mother figure before they could get into the entries.”

According to the brand manager, contestants must be fit mums, smart mums, and fun mums. The smart mum would answer some brand questions: “She should know what the brand is about and answer confidently questions about the brand. A fit mum should be healthy and fit. So, we do some fitness routines before a live audience. Finally, the fun mum would engage in a dance session with members of their family, also before a live audience, and the judges, on the spot, based their judgment, on criteria, would decide.”

Jacob noted that the top six contestants were judged based on the set criteria, including fitness, smartness, dance moves, and the number of votes by the audience.

At the end of the day, Joy Obiese won first place, followed by Ivbade Odigie and Mrs. Oluchukwu Rose Igwe, respectively.

Interestingly, for the first time, the Mum of the Year competition recognized and rewarded an outstanding Abeokuta-based retailer-mum, Abiodun Abolade Sodiq, with an all-expenses-paid trip to Dubai and one year’s supply of milk.

At the ceremony, Obieze said she was happy, excited, and on top of the world: “I have been a customer and follower for years. I have always known about Mum of the Year.

“My advice for mothers out there is to always give the family healthy nutrition, and they could find in the milk, which is a healthy milk for a healthy family, healthy heart, mind, body, and everything.”

To the organisers of the awards, she said: “Keep up the good work you are doing for always keeping smiles on mothers and families.”