Ibidun Ighodalo: A Shining Light In The Midst Of A Pandemic
Ibidun Ighodalo has been described as ‘beautiful, soft-spoken, humble, respectful, diligent, talented and friendly.’
She had a generous spirit and inspired young people who saw her as a role model; they wanted to be like her. The news of her death swept across the nation like a flood, know her or not, everyone mourned, in joint admission that a gem had passed on.
She was known as the “Queen of Decoration”, she got this title after executing the contract awarded to Elizabeth R, her event management outfit, by the then Lagos state governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (now Minister of Works and Housing) to decorate Lagos and give it a festive ambience for Christmas.
Her brief was to beautify Lagos and she did well. Ibidun always wanted the best for her clients and worried about little details; she usually went beyond her brief to do more. Ibidun also loved fashion and style. Her dress sense was always creative and remarkable.
Over the years, the company has positioned itself to provide total events management services from start to finish; including logistics, decoration, media coverage, entertainment and catering. As a testimony to her astuteness, there is The Dorchester, a 3000 capacity event hall in the Oniru area of Lagos.
Ibidunni was a woman of many parts, she was a former beauty queen, the Queen of decoration, she was also a mother, and a woman that carried the burden of women who had difficulty conceiving.
She was married to Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of Trinity House Church, Lagos and they had two children after 10 unsuccessful IVF. She was passionate about helping couples deal with infertility issues through her foundation.
The Ibidun Ighodalo Foundation (IIF) was formally launched in 2016 with a first batch of 28 couples who were offered financial assistance and other critical support to receive fertility services from reputable clinics. At the end, there were 15 successful treatments, five confirmed pregnancies and a delivery that turned out to be a set of twins.
To help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, Ibidun and her ever-dependable team at Elizabeth R, were setting up marquees as isolation centres for some state governments. Ibidun executes every contract dutifully and leaves nothing to chance. She was exemplary in character and leadership.
She started with the construction of the pioneer isolation and treatment centre sponsored by GTBank in Onikan, Lagos. The 110-bed facility was put together in just three days. She would later go on to set up another 250-bed isolation centre in the bowl of the Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
From the outpouring of tributes in some blogs to honour Ibidun, even those who were not close to her admire her strength of character, creativity, philanthropy and entrepreneurship.
Ibidunni was named one of the Neusroom 100 helping the world fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out the full list of honourees here.
