Fair is more beautiful...

I and five of my course mates: Collins, Desmond, Emeka, Nonso and Okwy were chatting near the entrance to our department when a course mate, Ngozi greeted us as she passed and became the topic of our discuss.

Okwy changed the topic by commenting on how ugly Ngozi has become. Emeka concurred as he remembered how Ngozi used to be the most beautiful girl he ever known. Desmond who has a record of having dated almost all the fine girls in our department said he couldn't believe he once had a crush on her. Collins expressed surprise on how guys used to flock around Ngozi and think her the most beautiful girl in the department while Nonso called her 'ashawo'.

I was the last to speak, and have to hide a grimace at my friends surprised look even with my known habit of opposing the general view. I used their silence to drive home my point and showed them two different pictures of Ngozi on my phone; she was dark skinned in one and fair skinned in the other. I told them that they didn't allow themselves see that Ngozi is better with a fair skin because they were used to a dark skinned Ngozi.

This raised a heated argument as Okwy and Collins were almost won over by my point while Emeka, Nonso and Desmond maintained strongly their Ngozi-is-now-ugly opinion. Desmond retorted on how I allowed pictures fool me. Nonso asked them not to mind me as I always side bad things. Emeka called me unbelievable while Okwy and Collins were described as foolish and confused.

The argument continued till Dr. Okonkwo, the lecturer we were waiting for, drove into our department packing space; we rushed into our classroom still arguing.

Ngozi is one of the popular girls in my department. She was very dark, the kind of dark called ebony. She was my school's beauty Queen in my year one and was meant to contest for S.U.G Vice Presidency but was disqualified two days to the election because one of her opponents wrote a petition against her. Her opponent claimed that Ngozi was a prostitute hence her need to bleach. The department responsible for screening the contestants were convinced by the claim, while Ngozi's reasons for bleaching wasn't considered good enough even though she was more beautiful with a fair complexion.