Nigerian professor, entrepreneur, and former presidential candidate Pat Utomi has described Akwa Ibom State’s Governor Victor Attah as a pacesetter who has attained “immortality”, citing the enduring affect of his improvement imaginative and prescient.
Mr Utomi, additionally a professor of entrepreneurship at Lagos Business School, assessed this in a Facebook post on Friday after travelling from Ikot Ekpene to Victor Attah International Airport to welcome former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the disclosing of a media platform in Uyo.
Reflecting on the journey, Mr Utomi stated the expertise reminded him of the foundations Mr Attah laid throughout his eight-year tenure as governor and the way his improvement initiatives continued to affect the state past his time in workplace.
“I was reminded of the foundation that one decent, visionary man of character, Obong Victor Attah, laid as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, and the fruits of his labour, so evident even in the work of his successors, both good and bad,” he wrote.
Mr Utomi stated the expertise gave him a renewed appreciation of transformational management, notably the power to check a future past rapid political concerns and persevere in pursuing it regardless of opposition.
“These are the people who see tomorrow and persevere to bring it about, even in the face of determined opposition,” he stated.
He added that Mr Attah had “attained immortality, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Michael Okpara and Sir Ahmadu Bello,” whereas persevering with to dwell merely.
Attah’s enduring legacy
Mr Attah, an architect and politician, ruled Akwa Ibom from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007, changing into one of many principal figures within the state’s improvement following Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999.
His administration pursued main infrastructure and financial improvement tasks, together with establishing a world airport, the Ibom Power Plant, creating the Ibom Hotels and Golf Resort, and planning an Ibom Deep Seaport. The state later renamed the airport Victor Attah International Airport in 2018 to recognise his contributions to the state.
Mr Attah initiated the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility at Victor Attah International Airport. Still, the undertaking was deserted earlier than his successor, Udom Emmanuel, revived it and inaugurated it in May 2023.
Subsequent experiences confirmed that excellent building and operational necessities remained beneath Governor Umo Eno, whose administration was nonetheless pursuing a partnership to convey the ability into full operation in August 2026.
Beyond infrastructure, Mr Attah grew to become a distinguished advocate of useful resource management and monetary federalism, insisting that oil-producing states ought to obtain a fairer share of income generated from their pure sources.
His advocacy was notably noteworthy within the Niger Delta, the place communities and state governments had lengthy demanded extra advantages from petroleum wealth extracted from the area.
The battle over derivation income grew to become a serious constitutional and political problem through the administration of Mr Obasanjo, who was president from 1999 to 2007, the identical interval Mr Attah ruled Akwa Ibom.
Mr Attah’s marketing campaign for useful resource management helped put income allocation and the rights of oil-producing states on the centre of nationwide debate. The constitutional precept of derivation supplies for a share of income from pure sources to be returned to the areas from which the sources are derived.
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Beyond monuments
Mr Utomi’s remarks place Mr Attah’s legacy inside a much bigger debate concerning the which means of management and the way political efficiency ought to be assessed after an administration leaves workplace.
By evaluating the previous governor with Awolowo, Okpara and Ahmadu Bello, Mr Utomi urged {that a} chief’s lasting significance lies not solely within the tasks accomplished throughout his tenure, but in addition within the establishments, concepts and improvement pathways that survive him.
Late Awolowo, the previous premier of Western Nigeria, was related to main social welfare and schooling programmes. Okpara, who led the previous Eastern Region, was recognized for agricultural and industrial improvement. At the identical time, Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, was a central political determine in Northern Nigeria’s improvement and administration.
Mr Utomi’s evaluation goes past the bodily infrastructure related to Mr Attah’s administration. It frames the previous governor’s legacy by how far his imaginative and prescient continued to form the state beneath successive governments.
However, Mr Utomi’s tribute was a private evaluation of Mr Attah’s management, fairly than a complete analysis of the previous governor’s document.
Mr Attah, born on 20 November 1938, turned 87 in November 2025. His political {and professional} profession has continued to draw public consideration, together with on the 2025 launch of a biography chronicling his life and profession.
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