‘Plus-sized’ teen body-shamed by beauty queens now runs all-female security team

As a plus-sized teenager Emem Thomas was mocked by her slimmer classmates and gave up on her dream of competing in beauty pageants to start an elite security team in Nigeria.

Emen is the head of Dragon Squad, a team of plus-sized woman almost a hundred strong that provides close protection for politicians and celebrities, as well as political rallies and social events across the country.

And the squad is growing fast. Emem told the Daily Star: "Dragon Squad has a unique selling point which is that we only employ Plus-Sized ladies as field officers and that gives us an edge over the men.

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“But most importantly,” Emem added, “women are known to be more intuitive and careful to take note of fine details compared to the male folks”.

Emem explains that something like Dragon Squad has always been in the back of her mind.

“I had always loved anything military or a uniformed organisation,” she says. “I was always captivated by the tactical formations done by them. That is how I joined the Red Cross Society of Nigeria and later on became a Carnival Marshal with the prestigious Calabar Carnival, Nigeria”

But she says that the turning point came after her marriage hit the rocks and she realised it was time to make a major change.

“I needed to get away from all the trauma of the experience and try to start a new life away from all the body-shaming and abuse”.

She started working for a private security firm, and floated the idea of launching an elite all-female division.

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But that first attempt ended in disappointment.

“After a few events with the ladies that I convinced to take up the jobs,” Emem says, “the company decided to shut down the female section.

But even though she felt “disappointed and betrayed,” she decided to try again.

“I wasn't going to let those ladies go back home with that mentality that we were only good with the kitchen … and the other room”

In 2018, Emem set out on her own, launching Dragon Squad with "about eight plus-sized ladies".

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Today, it’s a much bigger operation: “I have 45 ladies in the team in my location, and about 50 ladies spread across different state of Nigeria,” she told the Star.

Dragon Squad is affiliated with a larger company called Target Search Global, which trains operatives in counter-terrorism, close protection, crowd control and risk management.

Alongside their training, Dragon Squad’s operatives carry pepper spray and light batons to deal with the more determined wrongdoers.

Emem says that unfortunately, despite their skills, the women aren’t always taken seriously.

“Our male security counterparts see us as jokers and still don't take us seriously,” she says. “We are constantly priced lower than the male folks because society believes a job like security is about physical strength and agility only”.

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But her team’s emotional intelligence and diplomacy means that most conflicts are de-escalated before they become a problem.

Emem says that many people, because they’ve never encountered an all-female security team before, think they’re just on hand for “decoration”.

She adds that “male guests in events scamper to get our numbers so we can warm their beds after the event”

Unfortunately, there are limits to where Dragon Squad can operate.

In the north-east of the country, for example hardline Islamist terror group Boko Haram holds sway.

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The ISIS-affiliated group kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in 2014, intending to sell them into sexual slavery.

Emem says that she’s had to turn down potentially lucrative work in certain parts of Nigeria as a result.

“We will not deliberately put our women in danger for the sake of an event in a relatively insecure area of the country,” she said.

“We have had to decline some jobs coming from those flashpoints in the country and that affects our income flow.

She adds that in some cases, her operatives’ husbands have complained about the potential dangers of their work.

But Emem isn’t about to give up. By challenging security's macho culture the women of Dragon Squad have acquired new skills, new strengths and – most importantly she says – renewed confidence.

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