Meet Bianca Ojukwu, Tinubu’s latest appointee

President Bola Tinubu appointed Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Bianca Odinakachukwu Olivia Odumegwu-Ojukwu (née Onoh; born 5 August 1968) is a Nigerian politician, diplomat, lawyer, businesswoman and beauty pageant titleholder.

The widow of former Biafra president Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, she is a multiple international pageant titleholder, having won Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, Miss Africa, and Miss Intercontinental.

Formerly a presidential advisor, she was the country’s ambassador to Ghana and became Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain in 2012.

After Law School, Odumegwu-Ojukwu 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, Odumegwu-Ojukwu fronted print commercials for her brand.

She also established the non-government organisation Hope House Trust, centred towards rehabilitating juvenile offenders in Enugu.

In 2011, 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.

Her sister, Lilian Onoh was Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu was married to Ikemba Odumegwu-Ojukwu until his death in 2011; the couple had three children together.

Of her marriage, she admits that while she was happy to have found her husband, she would not encourage her daughter to make a similar choice of marital engagement.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu holds many traditional titles in her native land as well as the highest chieftaincy title conferred on women in her region.