Lady Chidi Alexandra Onyemelukwe is the next Governor of Anambra state, God willing – her dossier

CORPORATE PROFILE: LADY CHIDI ALEXANDRA ONYEMELUKWE (LCO)

Lady Chidi Alexandra Onyemelukwe was born in 1968 to the family of Late Chief Alex Ekwueme, first Vice President of Nigeria, and Lady Beatrice Ekwueme of Oko, Orumba North Local Government of present day Anambra State.

She attended various primary schools in Enugu and Lagos states. She had her secondary school education at the prestigious Queen’s College, Lagos.

Onyemelukwe is a graduate of Law from the University of Wales in the United Kingdom. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1990 and to the New York bar in 1998. She bagged her Masters Degree in International Law and Diplomacy from University of Lagos. She also obtained a Masters of Business Administration from the Duquesne University, Pittsburgh in the United States of America.

Onyemelukwe was the deputy governorship candidate of the PDP in the Anambra 2017 governorship election. Before that, she served as a Special Assistant (SA) to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). As President Olusegun Obasanjo’s SA, Onyemelukwe spearheaded the initiation, planning and implementation of some of the major SME programs and projects of the Government of Nigeria, which later culminated in the formation of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).

Onyemelukwe also served as the Chairman, Board of Directors, Federal Housing Authority where she commissioned over two thousand housing units built by the authority, including initiating the over 104 units of Site and Services at Amansea, Anambra State.

She worked as an Adjunct Professor of Finance in Florida, USA and as a Legal officer in the Florida State Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR), Real Estate Division.

A party woman to the core, Onyemelukwe has been in the PDP all her political life and has served the party in several capacities. She served as a private secretary to her father, the Late Alex Ekwueme during the G-34 meetings that later became what we now call the PDP.

Onyemelukwe served as the Secretary of PDP Primary Election Committee in the Lagos 2019 governorship elections. She was also a member of the PDP Ondo 2020 Gubernatorial Primaries Committee. Before that, Onyemelukwe, in 2019, served as the Secretary, PDP Anambra South Zonal Sensitization Committee on “Zoning for PDP 2021 Gubernatorial Activities”. She also served as a member of the Atiku-Obi 2019 Presidential Election Committee.

In 2020, Onyemelukwe chaired the PDP Anambra State COVID-19 Palliative Committee that equitably distributed relief materials around the the state in the middle of the stringent Covid-19 lockdown. Beyond palliatives, her committee also donated Covid-19 testing equipment and other materials to Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

As a private citizen, her focus has been in real estate law practice and international business. She speaks fluent English and Igbo languages. She also speaks French language
at the intermediate level.

Onyemelukwe is a promoter of excellent and qualitative education. She has a great passion for the advancement of the society through education and creation of economic opportunities. Accordingly, she has run a foundation that is critically focused on the development of human capital.

She is a recipient of the prestigious “Lady” – Order of the Knight of the Good Shepherd. She is also a receipient of “Ezi Ada” honour by St. John the Divine Church, Oko.

She is happily married to Dr. Okey Onyemelukwe of Nnewichi, Nnewi, Anambra State. Their union is blessed with five children.