In addition to his episcopal ministry, he was known for his musical and dramatic career, and was awarded the Grand Prize for Togolese Literature in 2020 for the play Le Trône royal.

His family returned to Togo some years after his birth and he completed his primary education and minor seminary in the Nyékonakpoé district of Lomé.

Before the 2020 Togolese presidential election, he worked in particular to ensure that candidates see politics as a "service that promotes social friendship to generate the common good" and their opponents "as brothers and sisters with other visions of development for the country".

[9] After Faure Gnassingbé's re-election, a result contested in particular by Agbéyomé Kodjo and Archbishop Emeritus Philippe Kpodzro, Nicodème Barrigah-Benissan worked to appease both sides and challenged the blockages imposed by the Presidency.

The archbishop emeritus, who called him his "favourite son whom I begot with so much love", also criticised him for "shirking [his] responsibilities [... and] putting the church back under the boots of the bloodthirsty dictatorship".

[12][13] During his mission at the nunciature in Côte d'Ivoire, Barrigah-Benissan produced his first album of religious songs, entitled Père pardonne-nous ("Father forgive us").