ARCHBISHOP HELEN ESUENE

FROM POLITICS TO PRIESTHOOD: A STORY OF GRACE AND DIVINE LEADING IN ALL HER WAYS

Helen Esuene is a portrait of grace and virtue; a woman whom God has truly graced and lifted for this generation. Humble and affable, she has been taciturnly making impact in lives of people through her ministry.

She was born into a staunch Methodist family, where her parents served as pioneers of the Methodist Church in Uyo. Helen’s baptismal name introduced her to Catholicism. She later joined the Qua Iboe Church after her marriage to Lt. Col. UJ. Esuene, former Governor of South Eastern State, now Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.

Having been brought up by a godly parent whose commitment to God was exceptional; the zeal her parents imparted to her increased her thirst for God and spirituality; leading her to a poignant encounter with God that marked a significant turning point in her life.

She enjoyed the mentoring grace and guidance of some frontline leaders like Rev. Dr. Uduak Udofia, and later joined The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Eket, where her devotional life and commitment to the Kingdom reached a new height.

Today, Helen Esuene serves as the Archbishop of Ministry of Repentance and Holiness; an international ministry with headquarters in Kenya. Besides her roles as the pastor to her congregation, Archbishop Helen Esuene leads a global platform where she collaborates with Christian bodies to lead national repentance prayers, arousing the church and political leaders on the imperative of national, state, community and family repentance.

This year, her commitment to national repentance and holy living, took her across states of the federation and Abuja, where she mounted conferences on repentance, and also lead ministers of the Gospel to repent on behalf of the Church and the nation.

t was at the middle of 2024 that Archbishop Helen Esuene, a seasoned technocrat, senator and former minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, granted IMA NKANTA interview; the excerpts reveal the amazing grace of God in leading the yielded to the apex of fulfilment, peace and purpose.

You have been at a very top of your career in public service and all of a sudden you came down to wash the feet of the people who in my own estimation are undeserving, what could have led to this change?

Thank you very much for the encomium, for me I don’t even think that I deserve it. I’m just a simple ordinary human being who has lived her life the best way she could, because the path of everybody is different, no two people tow the same path in life. So for me, there were many challenging times but the Lord saw me through, that’s what I can say because when I looked back I really don’t know how I managed some of those circumstances, even at my younger age then, but the Lord has been very faithful and very merciful even when we didn’t know Him.

But obviously, He sees our heart and He sees our intent, so when we make mistakes, He is very willing to forgive and help you make progress in life. I have been a wife, mother, civil servant, politician and after all of that, I’m in the Lord’s vineyard; so if that’s what you meant by washing people’s feet, I don’t know but I must say, for my own life, I think it’s God that has been helping me all the way.

For instance, I didn’t plan to go into politics, I did not. I married very young; but I wasn’t thinking of marrying at the time I married, then motherhood came, I was also playing the role of a wife, playing the role of a first lady at the age of 18 and 19, this were very challenging times for me. I still remembered my first official assignment as the Governor’s wife, I was virtually shaking like a leaf because I saw myself in the middle of elderly people, more mature women and more exposed persons who had seen it all, and I was to go and interact with them and make a speech and all of that. I was virtually shaking, but in all of those years when I looked back from what people say, the Lord helped me through; there were no serious mistakes at any point in time.

About my work in the vineyard and also going into politics, my husband was a politician and I was very satisfied playing the backseat role of making things happen, the support, I was very happy with that, I never at any given time saw myself playing the reverse role.
But when he passed on, I was kind of left empty, in that his friends were my friends, the people he knew were the people I knew, I didn’t have my own kind of friends. So when my husband left, I could not keep those friends again because the dynamics have changed. I lost him at very young age, so I needed to be careful, most of those relationship I had to slow down a little bit so that I can go on with my life without unnecessary issues.

But also at that time I was like, How do I get into the mainstream of the community, how do I get into the mainstream of the public to know what was happening? Then it was when a friend would come around, that’s when I knew what was happening. I dreaded going out for months because it was like, ‘If I go to event, supposing nobody offers me a seat. Sometimes the things you fear are very funny when you look back, but those were real fears to me, because before then, when you are sighted, someone will rush forward to usher you in and lead you to your seat; that’s what I knew. So by the turn of event, those were really challenges to me, which was why I stayed at home for a very long time. When I have any invitation sometimes I will dress up to go and I ended up not going.

Then someone said, “Are you going to sit at home for the rest of your life?” I said, “No, it can’t be!” That was when I started to muster up courage to attend public events. At a point I joined the Rotary club; I was the first female Rotarian in Eket. One day, I called my ward chairman and said I want a PDP card, the man was all eyes, he couldn’t talk, in his mind it was like, ‘Do you want to contest?’ I said, No, I’m not joining to contest, I just want to attend your meetings that’s all.

And that was it for some time until I was recommended to be in the State caucus of the party. Then they wanted to bring in few women and my name was included; it was really a strange environment. The way people talk, the way people do things and all of that, and then one thing led to another, and I ended up going to National Political Conference in Abuja, which exposed me to the Federal level.

Before the end of that conference, I was made a minister because of my presentations at the conference. I never for once thought I will be a federal minister. About the Senate, I was invited by the then Governor to run, and I ended up in the Senate. The only thing I went on my own in my entire life and failed was the Governorship. When I failed, I came back and the Lord said to me; “All that you’ve been was it because you desired it? It is me that gave them to you.”

From my marriage, everything that happened to me, that’s how it just happened, everything took me unawares except that one which I consciously went for. Of course, it was because it was the turn of Eket senatorial district and no one was showing interest, until the then Governor picked Udom Emmanuel. Then the ministry too, I never for once thought I will be a cleric, never in my life. In 2022, when I lost election before this time my daughter had said, there is this prophet that visited Nigeria and ministered, and I said okay, whenever he’s coming back to Nigeria let me know, I’ll like to listen to him but before that she said, there is this International Conference, will you like to attend? I said I’m not doing anything, politics and election are over, and I was just wrapping up at the National Assembly.

So, that was how I travelled to Kenya, and when I heard Prophet Dr. David Edward Owour preaching, he was preaching the word of God with strong conviction and clarity. It was really different from what I have heard before. When somebody speaks about what he knows too well, it comes out very differently; I was really excited. So, when we came back, I called the first meeting in my house by the pool side, just to introduce him; then one person in the meeting said, “Madam, I see you preaching the gospel, following this Man of God.” I said, “No, no, that’s not what I called you for, I called you just to tell you about what this man is preaching about, which is the end-time and we should be careful with our lives.

So after that time we started preparing for his visit, we were just three or four of us, we were not many, three women and a man trying to invite people, we made a lot of mistakes, a lot of blunders. It was necessary to now register the church in Nigeria officially, that was done and then we started to go from place to place for conferences and we were doing that, then the Prophet now made me the National Coordinator and that was okay. But in the administration, we had a man as the head in Nigeria, he was the National overseer. During conferences, he will speak and teach.

But in November 2019 precisely the national Overseer said he was stepping aside; we were shocked. “Why? What reason?” Before he informed us, he had already sent his resignation letter; it was such a shock. When he stepped aside, we were left like children without a father, he was the only man, he was the only one that has gone to Bible College, who people came for, the rest of us were just church goers.

So we felt rejected and alone and then we had these followers all over the place, what do we tell them? How do we manage the situation? But because God is God, it wasn’t even an issue; and the ministry has grown, and from 2021 we started to have our own altar, before then it was mainly inter-denominational conference. Now, we have about seventy one altars.

So why I’m sharing all this, just to portray the fact that this is how my life has been, it has never been something that I sit down and plan and say, “This is how it’s going to be!”
The day I was ordained a Bishop, I was on my way to the airport in Kenya for a flight back when the driver started receiving calls to bring me and the lady returning to US back. We didn’t know why we were asked to come back; I had already packed my bag. At that point I thought maybe the Prophet wanted to have a meeting with us, so we went back, I sat where I was before.

So, the prophet started the process of counseling with scriptures, as he was talking, he would look at my direction, and I was wondering in my mind; could it be possible that I’m going to be among the people to be consecrated Bishops? Nobody had said anything to me. So, in my traveling clothes, I was ordained a Bishop.

It was shocking to me; people came around congratulating me, and I said: “What are you congratulating me for? I cannot do this work, I’m not prepared for this kind of work.” After a year plus, that’s how they made me National Overseer. So that has been my life, I cannot say it was something I volunteered or planned for, I just found myself being given the responsibility.”