By Eric Elezuo
Daughter of a ardent political juggernaut, who became the governor of Anambra State and wife to a recalcitrant warlord and former President of Biafra, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu is far from a run-off-mill entity. She is a typical chip off the old block, an accomplished diplomat, distinguished lawyer, entrepreneur par excellence and beauty queen on many fronts.
She is, among many of her appendices, the just appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. An appointment many believe is a typical example of a round peg in a round hole.
Mrs Ojukwu hit the brightest limelight of her political career when in 2011, the then President Goodluck Jonathan appointed her as Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Affairs. She later became Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ghana and later Ambassador to the Kingdom Of Spain.
She is Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, just before President Bola Tinubu announced her and her new ministerial position.
Wikipedia further captures her trajectory as follows:
The sixth child of former Anambra State Governor Christian Onoh and his wife Carol, a college principal, Bianca Onoh spent most of her childhood in rural Ngwo with her siblings Lilian, Josephine, Nuzo, Gabriel, Stella, Christian and Josef. She attended Ackworth School, Pontefract, St Andrews College, Cambridge, and Cambridge Tutorial College where she obtained her A-levels. She soon began a combined honours degree in Politics, Economics and Law at the University of Buckingham, but transferred to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka after her father, a lawyer by profession, insisted she concentrated solely on Law and join the family business. Following graduation, Odumegwu-Ojukwu attended the Nigerian Law School which eventually led to her call to the bar.
After Law School, Bianca, briefly practised the profession before quitting to divide her time between her home, her cosmetics business Bianca Blend and her interior decorating outfit Mirabella. Despite her reservations regarding modelling, Bianca Onoh fronted print commercials for her brand. She also established the non-government organisation Hope House Trust, centred towards rehabilitating juvenile offenders in Enugu.
In December 1988, Bianca, who had previously emerged winner at Miss Martini, was crowned Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, but reigned through most of 1989. She also won the Miss Africa 1989 pageant held in Gambia before representing her country at both Miss World in Hong Kong and Miss Universe in Mexico. She achieved greater success when she became the first African to win Miss Intercontinental that same year, and was named Miss Congeniality at the now defunct Miss Charm International in Russia where she was also a semi-finalist.
In 2011, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Affairs by President Goodluck Jonathan; in 2012 she became Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ghana and later Ambassador to the Kingdom Of Spain. In 2016, Odumegwu-Ojukwu received a master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Alfonso X el Sabio University in Spain. She is now Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
On 23 October 2024 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reshuffled his cabinet and appointed Ojukwu as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Her sister, Lilian Onoh was Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia.
Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu is expected to bring her wealth of international experience to bear, to re-chart Nigeria’s image in the coming of nations.
