As the 2023 governorship election draws near, while most people know who the top contenders are in some of the states considered very crucial, not much is known about their better halves. The wives of the gubernatorial candidates are worth knowing, not only because having them as first ladies has gone beyond them having only ceremonial value but also because they go a long way to determine the inner workings of the mind of these contenders, at least to a large extent.
Due to space constraint, this short piece will only focus on Dr Ifeyinwa Aniebo, the wife of Gbadebo Vivour-Rhodes, the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party. This is because, Ify as she is fondly called, seems to be the most cerebral of all the wives of the top contenders.
At only 40, the Anambra State-born scientist is an international scholar of repute and an influential leader of thought in the global public health space. She is a molecular geneticist. She holds a first degree in Medical Genetics from Queen Mary University of London, a Master of Science in Applied Biomolecular Technology from Nottingham University, United Kingdom and another Masters in Global Health Science from Oxford University. She also has another Masters in Clinical Medicine from the same Oxford University and a PhD in Clinical Medicine and Infectious Tropical Disease which she obtained on a fully funded scholarship. While studying for her Ph.D., Ify was the youngest person, the only black person, and the only Nigerian in the Wellcome-Oxford-WHO unit in Thailand and the Malaria Department at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, two of the world’s top genetic research institutions. A sterling global career spanning Europe, East Asia and Africa, has seen Ify become a world acclaimed infectious disease expert, working on malaria drug resistance and implications for an effective vaccine development. She is currently a visiting scientist and a Takemi Fellow in International Health at Harvard School of Public Health as well as an associate scientist at the Board Institute of Harvard and MIT. At the same time, she is carrying out the first ever national genomic survey in Nigeria with the aim of strengthening Nigeria’s surveillance system for elimination by integrating molecular and genomic data.
She has an initiative, Afroscientric, which focuses on bridging the huge gap in young African women getting into the science field. In the past, Ify worked to find a cure for malaria by conducting Clinical Research in Thailand, conducting Field work along the Thai-Laos Border, and presenting her work at the 21st World Malaria conference in Mae Sot and the Genome conference in Cambridge. She also collaborated with a research unit in Rwanda, focusing on Plasmodium Falciparum strains from the country.
A recipient of several awards and honours, in 2010, Ify was crowned Scientist of the Year and Young Person of the Year at The Future Awards. In 2016, she was made an ASPEN fellow and she was been honoured twice by former president Goodluck Jonathan as one of the country’s top young innovators. She was also honoured by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, on innovation in science. These are just a few to mention. Ify’s father is Augustine Aniebo, a retired army general who served as military administrator of Borno State during the regime of late General Sani Abacha. he was also the military administrator of Kogi State from August 1998 to May 1999 during the transitional administration of General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
