Few Nigerian governors of the Fourth Republic carried the politics of their region from the state level to the national stage as forcefully as Obong Victor Bassey Udo Adiaha Attah.
In 2004, while serving as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Attah became Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), serving until 2006. He was the first governor from the south of Nigeria to occupy that position, succeeding Abdullahi Adamu of Nasarawa.
The chairmanship placed him at the head of a powerful national platform representing Nigeria’s state governors at a time when the relationship between the Federal Government and the states was being intensely contested.
By then, he had already become one of the most prominent political advocates of resource control, derivation and fiscal federalism in the Niger Delta.
Though the struggle had deep roots stretching back decades, involving community leaders, intellectuals, activists and political organisations across the oil-producing region, during the early years of the Fourth Republic, it was Attah who led his brother governors and members of the National Assembly from the zone to transform the demand into a major constitutional and political confrontation with the Federal Government.
For Attah, it was not simply about asking Abuja for more money.It was about the fundamental structure of the Nigerian federation; who owns the resources beneath the land and waters of the federating units? ;who has the authority to exploit them?; How much of the wealth generated from those resources should remain with the states and communities from which they come?; what responsibilities should the Federal Government retain?
These questions became central to Attah’s political identity.
As Governor of an oil-producing state, he became an outspoken advocate for the interests of the Niger Delta. He argued that the oil producing states should receive a greater and more meaningful benefit from the resources extracted from their territory.
His interpretation of resource control went beyond the payment of derivation funds. He distinguished between receiving a percentage of federally collected oil revenue and giving the resource producing states a greater degree of authority and economic participation in the exploitation of their natural resources.
At the heart of the controversy was the constitutional principle of derivation.
The 1999 Constitution provided that not less than 13 percent of revenue accruing to the Federation Account directly from natural resources should be paid to the states from which those resources were derived.For the oil producing states, however, the question was how that principle should operate in practice, particularly in relation to offshore petroleum resources.
Attah became one of the most visible political figures pressing the case that the producing states should not be denied the benefits associated with oil located off their shores.This brought him into a major confrontation with the Federal Government under President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The controversy over the onshore/offshore dichotomy became one of the defining constitutional battles of the period.
At stake was a deceptively simple but financially enormous question:Should offshore oil be treated as part of the natural resources of the coastal states for the purpose of calculating derivation?Attah’s answer was emphatically in the affirmative.He argued that excluding offshore resources from derivation unfairly deprived oil producing states such as Akwa Ibom of revenue that ought to accrue to them.
The issue was eventually taken through the courts and became one of the most consequential constitutional disputes of the early Fourth Republic.
What distinguished Attah was that he refused to treat resource control as merely an Akwa Ibom issue.He placed it within the larger question of federalism and the rights of Nigeria’s constituent states.In doing so, he found common ground with other South-South governors, including Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa and James Ibori of Delta, who were also prominent in the resource-control campaign.
Together, the governors helped move the issue from the Niger Delta’s regional political space into the centre of national politics.
The story of Victor Attah did not begin with oil.
Before he became the politician who would challenge Abuja over resource control, he was an architect, a professional and the son of an extraordinary family.
He was born on 20 November 1938 into the family of Chief Bassey Udo Adiaha Attah and Madam Agnes Bassey Attah.
His father was one of the famed Ibibio Merchants of Light who was a distinguished educationist and agricultural scientist and was among the early Nigerians to obtain university education in Agriculture and later a master’s degree in the field.
His mother, Agnes Bassey Attah, was a teacher and a prominent figure in women’s organisation in the old Ibibio society. She was associated with the Ibibio Women’s Union and was its first president, according to biographical accounts.
Attah therefore grew up in a family in which education, leadership and service to the community were already deeply embedded.
Attah’s educational journey took him from Akwa Ibom to Calabar, Zaria and eventually overseas.
He attended Hope Waddell Training Institution, Calabar before transferring to St. Patrick’s College, Calabar in Form 2. He later attended the Nigeria College of Arts and Science ( now Ahmadu Bello University , Zaria) where he began his professional training in architecture.
He later travelled to Britain for further architectural education, studying at Leeds College of Art and Liverpool University, where he obtained a postgraduate diploma in Building Science.
His education subsequently took him to the United States, where he studied Advanced Architectural Design and Planning at Columbia University in New York.
He also attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, broadening his exposure beyond architecture into public administration and governance.
The result was an unusual combination: an architect with substantial exposure to planning, development and government.
And eventually, that architect would enter politics and find himself arguing that the structure of the Nigerian federation itself required a fundamental rethink.
In 1999, with Nigeria returning to democratic rule, Victor Attah contested for the governorship of Akwa Ibom State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, and won.He was sworn in on 29 May 1999 and was re-elected in 2003, serving two terms until 2007.
His years in Government House, Uyo, were marked by an ambitious development agenda.
Years after leaving office, in 2014, he participated in the National Conference, again engaging with questions about the distribution of powers and resources within the Nigerian federation.
Widely regarded as the father of modern Akwa Ibom, he gave Uyo its first real masterplan and urban renewal. He dualized major roads in Uyo, built the second phase of the State Secretariat Complex, introduced Shelter Afrique Housing Estate, and established the Ibom Icon Hotel & Golf Resort with the Marina waterfront to position the state for tourism and investment.
His biggest legacy was in laying economic gateways that did not exist before. He conceived and started the Victor Attah International Airport with its Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility, initiated the Ibom Deep Seaport project, pushed the Ibom Independent Power Plant to address electricity, and established the Akwa Ibom State University of Technology (now Akwa Ibom State University). He also pursued a Silicon Valley vision with the Ibom Science Park and actively courted foreign investors.
Obong Attah has one of the largest collection of chieftaincy titles and honours in Akwa Ibom because most communities adopted him as their son.
Key Chieftaincy Titles included that of Mkpisong Ibibio conferred by Traditional Rulers in 21 of the 31 LGAs of Akwa Ibom at Asan Ibibio ground, Ada Idaha ke Efik Eburutu by the Obong of Calabar, Fiwagboye of Egbaland by the Alake of Egbaland, Abeokuta and several others.
He is a Knight of the Ancient Order of St. John International (KSJ), was a one time National President, Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) and Vice President, Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA) and National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), New York, USA
He was appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Western Delta University, Oghara in November 2018 while
The Akwa Ibom International Airport was renamed Victor Attah International Airport in 2018 in his honour.
As Akwa Ibom celebrate 39 years of statehood, PRIDE Obong Victor Attah is remembered as one of those who built the solid foundation upon which the state has seen massive growth, progress and development.
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