Helen Esuene


Helen U. Esuene 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 between 2005 and 2007.

Background

Helen Esuene took a course in Confidential Secretaryship and Office Management at the Federal Training Centre in Kaduna and started her civil service career as a confidential secretary.
Later she did a distance course from the University of Leicester and obtained Msc in Finance.
Shortly after she married the former military governor of the old Cross River State, Chief Udokaha 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, opening in 2000.

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 a successful candidate for the Senatorial seat of Akwa Ibom South in the April 2011 elections, running on the People's Democratic Party.