Pharm. Obiageri Ethel Ikwu is the chief executive officer, Lopez Pharmacy and Stores Limited, Ojo, Lagos. She is a health information advocate, with a special interest in vaccination and point-of-care testing.
Ikwu was born into the royal family of Eze Ojinnaka, the Ezesinobi of Akah Land, Umuakah, Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State, on 20, January, 1973. She attended Army’s Children School, Bonny Camp, Lagos, and later enrolled at Government College, Maroko, Sandfield, Lagos, where she obtained her Senior Secondary School Certificate.
She proceeded to the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Enugu State, in 1990 to study Pharmacy, and graduated in 1996. She had her internship with the Military Hospital, Lagos, during the ECOMOG era, under the tutelage of Dr (Mrs) Dere Awosika.
During her internship period, in her quest to add more value to herself and the pharmacy profession, she engaged as a locum pharmacist. She subsequently developed a passion for community pharmacy practice. Through her nature and nurture, she easily won the hearts of some of her clients in the neighbourhood, and this made her know that she was called to be a community pharmacist. She soon proceeded to Evans Medicals for her NYSC and worked directly with Pharm. Emma Ebere, who was the then sales director of the company.
Ikwu registered Lopez Pharmacy and Stores, a retail community pharmacy that has been involved in providing top-notch pharmaceutical care to the members of the community since 2000. She has also been involved in a number of health interventions and education programmes, such as school HIV/STI awareness programmes, to commemorate the World AIDS Day, every 1 December.
In 2018, in collaboration with Emzor Pharmaceuticals Plc, she trained over 40 pharmacists in Nigeria to be involved in Hepatitis B reduction, to reach the WHO goal of hepatitis eradication by 2030. She is passionate about teaching adults about STI/HIV prevention and believes in catching them young.
Pharm. Oby Ikwu, as she is fondly called, has served in various capacities for both the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) and the PSN. She was the pioneer zonal coordinator, ACPN Ori-Ade Zone; publicity secretary, ACPN-Lagos; financial secretary, ACPN-Lagos; member of DIC, ACPN-Lagos, and a host of others, both at the state and national levels.
Ikwu, an advocate of good pharmacy practice, with a track record of organising health awareness and sensitisation programmes for churches, mosques, women’s organisations, and town unions, where different health issues are discussed and appropriated, has received several meritorious service awards to her credit. She is Merit Award Winner of the Association of Lady Pharmacists, (ALPs), national, and many others.
Pharm. Ikwu is happily married to her best friend and husband of her youth, Mr Emeka Ikwu, and they are blessed with five children.
