Helen U. Esuene (born 23 November 1949) is a former Nigerian civil servant who was appointed Minister of State for Health, and later Minister of Environment and Housing in the Cabinet of President

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...

between 2005 and 2007.

Background

Esuene took a course in Confidential Secretaryship and Office Management at the Federal Training Centre in Kaduna and started her

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

career as a confidential secretary. Later she did a distance course from the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

and obtained Msc in finance. Shortly after she married the former military governor of the old

Cross River State Cross River State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Named for the Cross River, the state was formed from the eastern part of the Eastern Region on 27 May 1967. The state has its capital as Calabar and is bordered to ...

, Chief Udoakaha Esuene, who died in 1996. They had two girls and three boys. She went into business, starting with human resource management for Mobil Producing. Later she started what became Villa Marina Hotel in

Eket Eket is one of the 31 local government areas in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The name ''Eket'' or Ekid also refers to the indigenous people of the region who are the Ibibio people of the southern part of Ibibioland and to their dialect which is E ...

, opening in 2000. She built an art gallery as a memorial to the over 59 women gunned down by the Colonial Lords along Consulate road in Ikot Abasi during the 1929 women protest.

Obasanjo cabinet

Esuene was appointed Minister of State for Health in July 2005. She was appointed Minister of Environment in January 2006. After a cabinet reshuffle in January 2007, Esuene was given an expanded portfolio as Minister of Environment and Housing. She left office in May 2009 at the end of the Obasanjo administration.

Senate

Helen Essuene was the candidate for the Senatorial seat of Akwa Ibom South in the April 2011 Nigeria general elections, running on the People's Democratic Party (PDP platform).

References

*Niger Delta Business Guide, ISSN: 2782-7518 {{DEFAULTSORT:Esuene, Helen 1949 births Living people Alumni of the University of Leicester Federal ministers of Nigeria Peoples Democratic Party members of the Senate (Nigeria) Senators of the 7th National Assembly (Nigeria) Women government ministers of Nigeria