On Wednesday, the presidency issue a statement announcing the appointment of Mrs Bianca Ojukwo and three other persons – Hon. Kingsley K. Kuku as Special Adviser, Niger Delta Affairs, Amb. (Dr.) Zakari Ibrahim as Coordinator, Anti Terrorism and Oyewole Olugbenga Leke as Senior Special Assistant, Maritime Services.
The appointment of Bianca comes less that a month after her husband was flown abroad to receive intensive medical care.
Both Bianca and Chief Ojukwu got married in 1994. Back in April, 2010, in an interview with the Daily Sun, Lagos based tabloid, Bianca admitted that the Biafran strongman and her started dating back in 1989, when she was just 22 and Ojukwu was 56.
Before her appointment, the beauty-queen runs a skin and beauty enterprise, in Enugu among other businesses. She has been quoted to have refused political offers from one of the south-east governors sometime last year.
“Being Ikemba’s wife is a job on its own. These are issues that are being constantly discussed. Right now my prerogative is my husband and my family. I have a very young family. I don’t want a situation that would have my attention divided. I would like to help determine the path that my children would take. I would like to be instrumental to raising and shaping their lives,†Bianca said.
Although the former Miss Intercontinental used to practice law, her appointment as assistant to the president on diaspora affairs has generated mixed opinions among Nigerians abroad.
The generality of Nigerians surveyed see her appointment by President Jonathan – who is contesting the presidential election less than three month from now – as a double-edged sword for the sole purpose of a political swing and Bianca’s needs to attend to family matters outside the country as oppose to official diaspora matters.
Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians live outside the country – largely in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and South Africa – and contribute about $10billions yearly in remittance to the Nigerian economy.
Since the inception of democratic regimes in 1999, Nigeria’s national government has taken fairly robust steps to tackle many of the pressing issues that affect Nigerian citizens outside the country – this includes negative image, deportation, maltreatment and abuse of human rights, disenfranchisement, extortion and poor representation by some embassies and high commissions.
