'Beauty Queens and Bloodshed' looks at the politics behind the contest, which Nigeria, despite its history of religous conflict and poverty, paid £5m to host.
The images in the promotional campaign -- of a beautiful woman holding the Kalashnikov -- highlights the conflict that arose from holding such an overtly sexual and glamorous pageant in a poverty-stricken Muslim country during the holy festival of Ramadan.
The message is emphasised with the caption "If looks could kill".
The image is reminiscent of the scene in Quentin Tarantino's 'Jackie Brown' where Samuel L Jackson is seen watching a video of bikini babes advertising assault rifles. "Then there's the AK-47," Jackson says, "when you absolutely, positively have to kill every motherfucker in the room."
The event was surrounded by controversy from the time contestants boycotted the pageant on two occasions. First when single mother Amina Lawal was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, and when a group of children were sentenced to have their arms amputated for stealing a cow.
Despite these problems, the organisers refused to move the contest until 250 people were killed in bloody riots.
The riots were triggered when young journalist Isioma Daniel wrote an article in a Nigerian newspaper suggesting that the Prophet Mohammed may have liked to take one of the contestants as one of his wives.
Tonight's show features exclusive footage shot by some of the contestants in the pageant, while Daniel tells her story and how she still fears for her life, living under a fatwa in a secret location far from her home.
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