Dr. Nneka Obianma Onya is an exceptionally brilliant and successful woman of class. She is a 1st Class brain, who made good grades in school. She is a Medical Doctor and a Queen of Style, based in Port Harcourt, in Rivers State.
She is a Consultant family physician at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. She is the complete definition of beauty and brain and also known as one of the most stylish ladies in Port Harcourt. She has changed the narrative that doctors can only be professionals in their career, but not in style and fashion when required. According to this highly confident woman of substance, being married to a very supportive husband and being happy always has made her look ageless.
She is currently the Deputy Chairman Medicine Advisory Committee in charge of Servicom. She is happily married. The union is blessed with 4 children. This delectable woman has remained a role model to many young ladies in society.
She was our Guest on City People Live Chat a few days back with City People Magazine’s Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE. She talked about why she has remained stylish all her life, what defines her style, how she has been able to juggle the roles of a doctor, fashionista, wife, mother and creative director together, and her take on the Covid-19 pandemic.
How were you able to effectively balance all your roles, as a Medical Doctor, fashionista and wife?
It is all about prioritising and multi-tasking, making out time for those things you hold important. It is about juggling things together, that is how I do it. The fact that I am doing my medical stuff doesn’t mean, I won’t think about the next style I am going to wear. How I am going to create it. My husband is always like oh my wife is like crazy (laughs!)
But honestly, that is how I am, I am not a stereotype. a lot of people have tried to put me that way but it didn’t work. Many wonder how, this kind of person who looks this way, should be brainless, but honestly, you can’t put me in a box. I tried to excel in everything I do. The fact that I try to dress well doesn’t mean that I don’t know what I am supposed to know. I even know it more than people who don’t make any effort to look good.
So, I always try to encourage young upcoming women to make sure they are always looking good. It doesn’t remove the fact that they have the knowledge, looking good is good business and they should make an effort to look good always and feel good and I think that is how life is.
Many believe doctors don’t have the time to dress well, so how come you are different?
Yes, that is the point and I am changing the narrative, I am one of the pioneers whom lots of the younger ones look up to. I give them hope, I hope I am not blowing my trumpet but I just have to state the fact as they are because lots of the youngers are looking up to me and they are always like oh! So, medicine can be practised without you looking dry, so you look great, have your fun and still be a good doctor, it encourages a lot of women.
So, I have a good number of followers. They see me as their role model and you are indeed part of that success story.
How did you choose and develop your career?
To be honest, I never planned reading medicine, I was supposed to be an artist. My daughter and son are both artists, they took the talents from me. I am a world medalist in Fine Arts two times, when I was in secondary school, I was always snatching away all the prizes, during the prize-giving day, I will emerge a winner for English, Mathematics and all others, I was just brilliant, so the teacher came to my parents, my dad was a medical doctor, but late now, so they were like she must read medicine. Don’t let her waste her brains. So, everybody was on my neck to read medicine, when I said I wanted Fine Art, they said no, so that was how I got Jamb did the necessary exams, so I eventually read medicine. After my first degree, I still went back and did speciality on the family physician, through the residency programme and right now, I have been a Consultant for 12 years. I train residence, I examine residence, I am now among the top management of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. So, I have not had any regrets, I now understand why they wanted me to become a doctor. At times, I will just sit and think if I could have done better with or without medicine, maybe not. It is better to go for a profession that can give you assurance of where you can get your next meal from, no matter what. With medicine, you can feed and have a roof over your head. You also know that at a point I had my own fashion outfit, so that is part of the fulfilment of my personal. Like I said before I am an artiste so now, that I have fulfilled the desire of everybody, I was wondering how I could express my love for arts. So, I started drawing designs, it became a hit I remember you did the first fashion show in my honour in Port Harcourt, it was a hit, it was great, at a point, I had to slow down things because of security issues in Port Harcourt so everybody won’t be coming to my house, so I was just opened to some selected people.
What kind of person is Dr. Nneka Obianma?
I have so many parts, as a doctor, as a mum, as a wife, as an artist, as a creative director. At a point, I became a publisher of a magazine, but I had too much on my plate, so I had to let it go. I am this kind of person who feels fulfilled when I give back to the society, I am not satisfied just waking up every morning and going to work, I feel I have much more in me to offer than all that, I believe in impacting positively on other people, especially the upcoming people who look up to me, it has also rubbed off on my kids. Success is defined differently from what it actually is. Our value has changed, a lot needs to be changed and I am this person that strongly believes you could have it all with God on your side. You could be the best of what you want. No limitation, regardless of your sex or status, as long as you have God by your side, in as much as you do the right thing at the right time, that is my own philosophy of life. When I see people criticise me, they only ginger me to work harder and achieve more, I believe strongly in God and myself.
What is your take on the Covid-19 pandemic?
I feel Covid-19 is a new disease, I feel if we had done the lockdown earlier enough, it would have helped the situation. This is a virus that would spread, no matter how you decide to lockdown. Now, it will be of little benefit, that is my own opinion.
We will tell people to wear face masks, yet we are not producing it, not much is done to educate people concerning social distancing.
We talk about washing hands. Has the government provided enough pottable or borehole water, when you lockdown you should have provided all these for people to use. You talk about hand sanitizers do they come cheap, I think the face shield is even better, people can still wear that much longer than the face masks. If you can afford them, and when the risk is higher you need to use the face shield and masks. We also have other deadly diseases killing people on a daily basis, not just the Covid-19 pandemic, the government needs to look into all these as well.
