Throwback: Remembering Ojukwu, Bianca’s talk-of-town wedding

Nigeria’s entertainment space is buzzing as Priscilla, daughter of famous actress Iyabo Ojo, officially weds Tanzanian singer/songwriter Juma Jux.

As guests turn out in their numbers at Eko Hotel, the venue of the traditional wedding, on Thursday, it would appear that lightning does indeed strike on the same spot twice.

About 24 years ago, before social media became a thing, two notable personalities, Odumegwu Ojukwu, who led a secession attempt and Bianca Onoh, a former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria Pageant winner, married traditionally.

On that day, all roads led to the hilltop town of Ngwo in Enugu State for the event tagged ‘Igba Nkwu Bianca’.

On Wednesday, Bianca recounted on her social media pages that she and her husband, Ikemba Nnewi, waited 12 years for her father, Christian Onoh, the former governor of Anambra State, to bless their union.

She says his approval came seven years after their white wedding and three children later.

“That’s when the father of the bride said ‘Yes’! Enugu was shut by a mammoth crowd as people from far and wide, distinguished personalities from all over the country and beyond our shores, as well as all the governors of the South Eastern States, stormed the legendary ‘Okwor’s Fortress’, the ancient stone palace of my grandfather the late High Chief Gabriel Okwor Onoh, Father of Chief C.C. Onoh (Aninefungwu Ngwo), to witness this significant event. It was nothing short of a carnival,” she recalled.

Long drawn battle

Shedding light on the backstory, Bianca, Nigeria’s Federal Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said that her father demanded a bride price of 100 pre-independence copper coins.

“Those old coins with a hole in the middle. And where could anyone readily find these scarce coins in such quantity in 2001?

“The Ikemba had to dispatch people to various parts of the country in search of the old coins. It cost so much more to source the coins than they were worth,” she wrote.

Years later, when she asked her father what informed his strange request, in her words, he laughed and told her that he had to make it difficult for the late Chief Ojukwu to take her hand in marriage.

“If it were purely a matter of paying money, being a man of excellent means, he would have been prepared to pay any amount, no matter how huge, as your bride price,

“That would have been easy for him to do. But in your marriage, anytime he makes you upset, and you threaten to leave and head back home to your father’s house, he will remember the difficulty in procuring your bride price,” her father explained.

Love lost. And found!

Ojukwu’s love story with Bianca had its ups and downs.

Despite their age difference, the couple wedded in 1994 at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Catholic Church in Abuja.

Archbishop John Onaiyekan, the Archbishop of Abuja Diocese at the time, officiated the ceremony.

Their registry wedding was held at the Kaduna registry, as witnessed by Ojukwu’s friend, the late Clement Akpamgbo. A reception followed after the event at Apo Quarters in Abuja.

However, the relationship strained the friendship between the war general and the bride’s father.

According to reports, the affair between Bianca and Odumegwu, who had been married three times, incurred her father’s wrath to the point where he threatened to disown her.

This stemmed from the fact that not only was her love interest her father’s close friend and ally, he was also more than twice her age.

She wrote, ” Fast-forward to today, and I am awed by my father’s wisdom. My husband and I often joked about this ‘Herculean task’ during our marriage. Sometimes, when it’s said that ‘Daddy knows best’, Trust me… I should know!!”

Happy Endings

In January 2025, she paid homage to her late and husband, describing them as the two most important men in her life.

In an Instagram post titled Happy Endings, the former ambassador to Ghana posted a photo of herself seated between both personalities, describing them as men who rode the thunder and quelled the storm.

“This photograph was taken at a function over two decades ago. Yes, Things can change. In those heady eighties, the Ojukwu and Bianca saga was the cauldron on the stove. It was a relationship predicted by pundits to crumble faster than a Snickerdoodle cookie.

“It was a battle royale between these two great men; it was fodder for the tabloids; it was a scenario with all the ingredients of a prime-time soap opera… But ultimately, Love prevails in matters of the heart,” she wrote.

The politician also had a message for online inlaws, love commentators, and ‘name sabi the real gist’ historians.