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Since Your Excellency Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu (Iyom) walked the red carpets as a beauty queen, many of us have followed you. You have remained unrivalled, unblemished, an icon and role model.
Though beauty contest is a mere competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants, the pageant have evolved to also incorporate personality traits, intelligence, talent, and more.
So, becoming the African Intercontinental Queen of your time was no mean feat. It came with real beauty, brain, and brawn. In his magnum opus, ‘Because I am Involved’, your great husband Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, authentic Igbo leader and General of the People’s Army, succinctly put it this way: “To say that Bianca Onoh is beautiful is like standing before the Eifel Towers and shouting that the building is tall.”
Stars do not struggle to shine. You didn’t even need any contest to prove you are one of the most beautiful women to walk the face of Mother Africa. So, Ikemba’s testament, while still wooing you was the truth, which even your foes will acknowledge. You later became Ikemba’s wife and sadly, now his widow. Ikemba being the one who led Ndigbo in their most challenging time in history when they faced existential threats during the Biafra war automatically makes you the mother of the Igbo nation, your relatively young age of 56 notwithstanding.
Being Ikemba’s widow even increases this status and role, just as Chief HID Awolowo, the late Obafemi Awolowo’s widow, was to the Yoruba people before she passed away at a ripe age. It is in this light you should bear the bruises you so easily suffer while trying to represent your people by venturing into partisan politics and while trying to preserve the sanctity of APGA as one of the major legacies of Ikemba for the Igbo nation.
Politics is like that, and made even more acerbic by the republican nature of your people – Ndigbo. Politics is adversarial and takes no prisoners. Even being the widow of Emeka Ojukwu will not be an armour strong enough to shield you from its vagaries. And that is why many people who may want to serve still shun it; certain persons occupying certain positions do not go into contests for political positions also and permit me to take the liberty of opining that you are too iconic to go into a contest with your subjects. Though I admire your courage in attempting what such angels fear, I find political appointments like your being made the Nigerian Ambassador to Spain under President Goodluck Jonathan far more fitting.
Like observed already, partisan politics everywhere, not just in Nigeria, is deep murky waters. Nobody swims it and comes away clean. And because we are living in an imperfect world, there is always a nasty story to tell about someone, especially when they are determined to tell such a negative story. And to show how inescapable, these stories do not even have to be true to fly. That is why, in politics especially, facts and truths are not the same. However, because you are an eagle, you have always soared above storms. Crows are your enemies but they will drop off your back when you reach greater altitudes and they die from lack of oxygen.
In hostile situations, many people would instinctively gravitate towards you, just as they would Emeka Ojukwu, and here’s why. Let’s face it: Ojukwu lived and died the symbol of the Igbo race and their struggle for survival and emancipation. He played certain inimitable roles culminating, ultimately, in leading the Biafra independence struggle and heading the Republic of Biafra for 30 precarious months.
Today, you are the Emeka Ojukwu we see, that looming image of the zenith of the Igbo essence and Igbo possibility. You have carried this weight with elegance and ease. Your candour is grace in itself, a benchmark for beauty, intelligence, and strength. I don’t know if you’re aware that the name Bianca is another name for an exceptionally gorgeous woman, particularly one of Igbo descent. When I had my last daughter , she was cute, petty and beautiful. The very moment I set my eyes on her, I couldn’t think of any other name for her but Bianca.
Our people owe Ojukwu a tremendous deal, and many of us thought that your marriage to him was our suitable gift for his heroic efforts to preserve Ndigbo. It was such a bitter war to the point that many Biafra women bravely risked their lives behind the enemy line in response to the concomitant hunger to keep the Biafra soldiers, their husbands, and their children alive (I am sure you have watched Ujuaku Akukwe’s documentary “Afia Attack”).
Emeka Ojukwu, your late husband, unquestionably the greatest Igbo man to ever live, carried all of that on his still-young shoulders when he was just 33 years old. He lost a lot of his youth and his ability to lead a settled life due to the necessity to ensure the survival of Ndigbo and all Biafrans until you arrived to fill the void and offer him the much-needed succour. He was forced into exile, where he remained for 13 years. Later, after receiving a pardon from the Shagari administration, he returned.
Also keep in mind that upon the establishment of the current democratic system, the PDP, AD, and APP (then known as the ANPP) emerged as three legacy political parties. Soon after, several Igbo leaders believed it was necessary to create a political party where Ndigbo could have a bragging right. By that point, the late Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme had been coerced out of the PDP presidential ticket. Ojukwu unavoidably became the face of APGA, giving the party the essence and relevance that have allowed it to survive and flourish to this day.
I think Ikemba agreed to run for president under the APGA though it wasn’t necessarily created as an Igbo party, but rather as one that Ndigbo could brag about as being one they helped create. When Ikemba first joined APGA and took on the role of the party’s flag bearer, it was a very positive development and symbolic act. In the initial presidential poll, he finished third.
As the Igbo queen mother, I’m calling your attention to the rather difficult nature of the role that you are now standing for. You were forced into this position by both fate and free will. You knowingly consented to share Ikemba’s fate when you agreed to take his hand in marriage. You weren’t adopted by him. Now, he has left you to finish the fight. As a cultural icon, in your homage to him, which you termed “Di m” after he passed away in 2011 at the ripe old age of 78, you explicitly acknowledged this. The tribute served as a beacon for everything any lady could ever hope to be and everything a king could ever hope for in his queen.
As the vast Igbo ethnic group’s queen mother, you carry yourself so gracefully and modestly. Don’t think about your age at it for age is just a number.
Know today and always that you have a guaranteed position in the Igbo heart. Bianca Ojukwu, you are. In the eyes of the Igbo man and woman, there is no status higher than that. Keep this in mind and carry on with the dream and commitment Ikemba left behind. Ndigbo adore and value you a great deal.
Happy birthday, the queen mother. We celebrate and pray to see and further celebrate you on the 10th floor in excellent health, greater wisdom, and happiness.
