Ibidunni Ighodalo (July 1980 – 14 June 2020) was a beauty queen, an event management expert, a philanthropist, and a co-pastor of Trinity House Church, in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. She is the founder of Elizabeth R, a public relations and event company; and Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation, a non-profit organization that is focused on supporting families with infertility challenges.

Biography

Ibidunni Ighodalo was born in

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Region, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the ...

Kaduna State Kaduna State ( ha, Jihar Kaduna جىِهَر كَدُنا; ff, Leydi Kaduna, script=Latn, ; kcg, Sitet Kaduna) is a state in northern Nigeria. The state capital is its namesake, the city of Kaduna which happened to be the 8th largest city in ...

on 19 July 1980. She is the fifth child of eight children of Olaleye Ajayi. Ighodalo attended K-Kotun Primary School in

Surulere Surulere is a residential and commercial Local Government Areas of Nigeria, Local Government Area located on the mainland of Lagos in Lagos State, Nigeria, with an area of . At the last census in the year 2006, there were 503,975 inhabitants, wi ...

, Lagos and did her Secondary School at Federal Government Girls College,

Oyo State Oyo State is an inland state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is bordered to the north by Kwara State, to the east by Osun ...

. Afterwards, she applied to study Medicine at the

University of Lagos The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in th ...

Akoka Akoka is a suburb of Yaba in Lagos State. It is known to be the hub of major tertiary institutions in Lagos including the University of Lagos The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in L ...

, which was her father's choice. However, her admission paper got mixed up with someone else, and she decided to study Microbiology. Upon the completion of her Bachelor degree, she acquired further training in

Business Management Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

from the

Lagos Business School Lagos Business School (LBS) is the graduate business school of Pan-Atlantic University, owned by the Pan-Atlantic University Foundation (PAUF), a non-profit foundation registered in Nigeria. LBS was founded on inspirations from the teachings of ...

. She was also a fellow of the National Institute Marketing. In 1998, before she started University, her brothers registered her for a beauty competition, the Miss Lux beauty Pageant, and in 1999 she was the first-ever winner of the Miss Lux Beauty Pageant. This created pathways to her career in event management. In 2003, she established her event management and public relation company, known as Elizabeth R, and three years later, she started a bridal store, Avant-Garde. In 2007, she married Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of Trinity House Church and both have two adopted children. Ighodalo was open about her own struggles to conceive, and her passion to help families that are suffering from infertility. She once narrated in an interview how they struggled to have their own children, visited hospitals and were told by medical doctors that their only option is to seek treatment through assisted reproduction. Ighodalo said that she had done

IVF In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) fr ...

11 times and it failed every time, and during the last attempt, she was pregnant with twins. She lost the pregnancy after three months. These experiences led her to establish Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation to create awareness on infertility and provide financial supports for families with such issues to do IVF. Through the foundation, she has provided grants for couples to undergo IVF, and carried out awareness. Ighodalo died in the early hours of Sunday morning, 14 June 2020 in Port Harcourt, in Southern

. Before her death, she was on assignment to set up a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

isolation centre for the River State government. Ighodalo died about a month before her 40th birthday. She died due to cardiac arrest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ighodalo, Ibidunni 1980 births 2020 deaths Nigerian women business executives Yoruba beauty pageant contestants Yoruba Christian clergy University of Lagos alumni Event planners Women Christian clergy Lagos Business School alumni Nigerian beauty pageant winners Nigerian Christian clergy Yoruba women in business Nigerian philanthropists Yoruba women philanthropists