By Dan Okon-Effiong
The Senator representing Akwa Ibom South Senatorial district in Akwa Ibom state Senator Helen Esuene has formally declared her intention to contest the 2015 governorship election in the state.
Esuene made her intention known on Wednesday night in a closed door meeting with her support group.
The group that have been wanting to know if she was in the race as was speculated in the media and in the state also disclosed that she has commenced consultations and at the appropriate time there will be a formal declaration before the entire people of Akwa Ibom state.
Acknowledging her declaration, the support group which cuts across the entire state in turn, formally endorsed her for the race
The eloquent and soft spoken Senator Esuene told her large number of supporters in the meeting that her constituency expected her to run.
“The governorship of this state with present administration ending 2015, a lot of people have come to me to say you must contest and I say why? They say we know that you are the one that can manage this state, so that there is unity, transparency, sustainable development. I know sustainable development is born out of three things. One justice, two justice which begets peace and unity and three is vision before you can have sustainable development otherwise we know that it is very difficult to build but to destroy is easy. You break it down it is gone. In every aspect of life is like that. So our Governor has done so much for this six years and we need an administration that can come and fine tune on what he has done and take it to a higher level and the person on that seat must be somebody well accepted tested and trusted. My children are grown as you. I am not going there for any flamboyant or aspiring for a name, material things or whatever. I am into the race to touch lives in Akwa Ibom state,” she said.
She promised to base her campaign on issues and not persons as “in my senatorial election I didn’t castigate anybody and I will not castigate anybody. I have enough issues to talk about to market myself and that is what I am doing. In me wanting to run for the governorship of this state, governance is not a new thing for me. I know how civil service is run, I know how government at the state level is run and I will deliver for the people. In governance you have to treat people well to get their best and in my company I do just that and I get the best. Some of the best hands we have today in my company came in as mere ruffians but today they are well developed and responsible people now, married with their families and this gives me joy. So human or people management, what the community needs, the arts of governance I have it. I want say that I am pleading for your support for the 2015 governorship race because a tree cannot make a forest. I want you to stand by me. There will be temptation, there be offers but if you believe, I don’t forget people. In this race we shall place our cards on the table, we shall brainstorm together and will not come with an agenda and push it down your throat because nobody has the monopoly of wisdom. It is going to be a collective thing”.
Esuene said that for a long time she had with her hard earned money touched lives saying: “When I lost my husband in 1993, four years after (1997) when I was doing a small remembrance, I floated the Esuene foundation when I could not even meet my own needs but my desire was to make impact on the community and touch lives. So I started the foundation and the first 12 undergraduates were from different parts of the state and the scholarship money then was only N20,000. I saw them through and God blessed me and my business flourished and I added the soccer under 15 National tournament. We used to have up to 23 states participating I will pick up their transport, accommodation, feeding, kits and gifts. I thought as I started corporate bodies will come in because the idea was to build our youths to do well in national and international football competitions. But they did not and every year I spent N14million on it and I ran the tournament for six years. When it was becoming too expensive for me to manage, I rested it and diverted the funds to give more scholarship. So for now we carry 60 to 70 students and the funds later increased to N100,000 and that is what I give them. We don’t do it once and for all but throughout the years of their study in the University,” she said.
Senator Esuene had served in the civil service and retired as a Director before venturing into the private sector which she is doing very and ranks the highest employer of labour in the state besides government and Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN).
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