Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has opened up about her journey to success, revealing the struggles she faced despite coming from a privileged background.
Speaking at the Nigerian Women’s Day event on the sidelines of the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Bianca shared how her path to self-fulfillment was far from smooth.
She recounted how, as a young girl, she was fascinated by the idea of traveling the world and saw beauty pageantry as her ticket to achieving that dream.
“I started off really as a young girl wanting to see the world. I remember sitting in the common room with other young girls always in those days, we would be watching Top of the Box, the music videos, Miss World, Miss Universe, and always quite impressed with the exotic backdrops more than anything. I just wanted to travel and see the world, and what was the best way of doing that, if not going into a pageant?” she recalled.
Her first attempt at pageantry brought her success, but she was unable to take up the opportunities that came with it.
“So, I started my journey of going first into a certain pageant, which I won, but as a student, I couldn’t take the offer that came, which included a one-year modelling contract in Tokyo. Of course, my parents didn’t know. They didn’t send me to school to go and take part in a pageant, so I had to give that up.”
However, Bianca’s foray into beauty contests did not end there. She went on to compete in the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) pageant—a decision that did not sit well with her father.
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“Until when I now took part in the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, which rendered me homeless for one month because, naturally, African fathers—my father was livid with rage. But I guess after I had won other pageantries like Miss Africa, Miss Intercontinental and so forth, he had to come to terms with it.”
Despite her success in the beauty world, she admitted that earning money at a young age almost led her to abandon her education.
“But the point I’m making is this: one of the hardest things is, when you start earning money quite early, the biggest temptation would be to leave school. By the time I was earning my own money, I was a law student living in the hostel with about six other students with no water, nothing, and then going back to school to finish my education as a lawyer was quite challenging. But that was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.”
Bianca emphasized the importance of education for young women, urging them not to be swayed by immediate financial success.
“I think young women need to understand the power of education,” she advised.
Her story of resilience and determination serves as an inspiration, showing that success requires perseverance, even when the odds seem stacked against you.