Day Of Encomiums For Attah By Idongesit Ashameri - Correspondent, Uyo Friday, September 5, 2014, will remain indelible in the minds of not only the Ibibio majority but the entire Akwa Ibom people as a day honour to whom honour is due was willingly demonstrated by a vast majority of Akwa Ibom people. It was indeed a heroic reception by the Ibibios in honour of Obong Victor Attah, former governor of Akwa Ibom state and a champion for the abrogation of the onshore/offshore dichotomy, a fight which has made Akwa Ibom the highest revenue earner from the Federal Government of Nigeria. Held at Asan Ibibio, the grand reception was organized by the Ibibios to accord a befitting welcome to Obong Attah who indeed proved himself a worthy ambassador of the South South and a ranking member of the National Conference where he served as the Co-Chairman of the Committee on Resource Control and demonstrated by all means a patriotic and visionary national leadership prowess. It is on record that the just concluded national conference is not the first and only avenue that Obong Attah has demonstrated his zeal for resource control for the south south, who are the real owners of the petroleum resources the country is blessed with. It could be recalled that while in office as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Attah dared denial of every political favour to fight to a standstill, the issue of resource control, a situation which earned the state, presidential hatred-cum-respect. To say that Obong Attah left office a saint is by no means an exaggeration as far as the 1999 class of Nigerian governors is concerned vindicates him as the only Governor who ever dared President Obasanjo and escaped the EFCC net. It is even on record that Attah pleaded with the EFCC to come down and probe the state. “Arrest me if I am corrupt,” he had challenged the EFCC. A reflection on Governor Attah’s eight years’ stay in office refreshes the fact that he conceptualized virtually all the mega projects that gives Akwa Ibom the destination status it has achieved today, as he was the brain behind the Ibom Airport, Le-Meridien Ibom Hotel and golf resort, Ibom Power Plant, the Ibaka Deep Seaport project, the Science Park and the third ring road, where the Ibom Olympic stadium is located. Locations of these projects were quite strategic and all interdependent to make Akwa Ibom an investor’s hub of comfort. No wonder then, Obong Attah boldly told the mammoth crowd that gathered to receive him that he left as a thinking governor. The mammoth crowd that went to receive Obong Attah was reminiscent of the ingenuity of Governor Godswill Akpabio who, although was unavoidable absent at the grand reception of his political father and predecessor, planned a parallel youth event, considered by some critics as a scheme to divert attention from the worthy reception. Being trapped for over two hours along Olusegun Obasanjo way, a road to the venue of Attah’s grand reception, however, suggested otherwise, that the youth’s event was planned to check traffic congestion as many would not have made it to the venue of the reception if some youths who needed to be educated on the ills of political thuggery were not diverted by the event organized for youths without an umbrella organization. Unfortunately, some the youths, Daily Independent observed, left the venue with deep sense of frustration and disappointment as their expectations were not met. One of the youths who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said, “suddenly they asked us to gather here today with a promise to give each of us N100,000 (one hundred thousand), at the end of the day some of us ended up with N2500 (two thousand five hundred), some N5000 (five thousand naira). I really regret coming here, and before I could rush to Attah’s event they had already finished because I spent close to three hours in traffic,” he lamented It was indeed heartwarming to see the level of acceptance Obong Attah still retains many years after leaving office as governor by the generality of Akwa Ibom people, so serious it was that the father of modern Akwa Ibom, inspite of the very intelligence master plan he drew for the state could not have all his admirers arrive the venue as all roads leading to the venue was tightly congested – a disappointment he received with a deep sense of satisfaction and pride. No doubt, Obong Attah felt like a king that he truly is, holding his thinking head high, he said: “We of Akwa Ibom Professionals will now be celebrating our leaders in their lifetime. We will honour them; we will appreciate them; we will acknowledge their achievements in the open; we will sing and chorus them to the high heavens; we will never be tired of doing so. I am not sure how many celebrations have since been held or how many choruses have been composed, which is why today has to be seen as a very unique and special day.” Apparently referring to some Ibibio sons and daughters whose veil of ignorance recently fell off their faces to re-consider uniting as brothers, Attah said, “But who are the Ibibios? If you are expecting to hear me say that the Ibibios are a great people who have registered a number of firsts, who have achieved this, who have accomplished that and accomplished the other; much as all that may be true, I am afraid that on this occasion, I will disappoint you”. “I want instead to remind you that, in spite of our numbers, we have in the past been described as an ineffectual majority. We have also been described as an atomistic society perpetually at war with itself. Even more insultingly we have been compared with the tiny leaves of an African Oil Bean tree, numerous enough to fill the basket but totally useless when it comes to wrapping even the tiniest parcel. We have shown righteous indignation at these insults but, undeniably, there is need for an examination of conscience perchance we had provided the reason for the abuses.” Disclosing his effort to the creation and development of Akwa Ibom State, Attah unwittingly endeared himself more to the generality of the people with this revelation. He said: “Let me start by telling you about something that happened in 1987. I was living in Kaduna and about the middle of that year, I received a message from the Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, GCFR. He sent to ask me if I was no longer interested in a state for my people. This happened because for a long time I had, with respect and within the limits of friendship, harassed him to create a state for us. When it did not happen, I gave up. This message therefore came as a bolt from the blue. I was shocked, but ecstatically surprised. I was asked to present yet another request for a state which I did. Sometime after that I was invited to the office of the Coordinator of National Security (CONS) at 12dj Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, and was asked to draw a map of what I thought should constitute the new state”. “After that I waited and then on 23rd September 1987 came the announcement that Akwa Ibom and Katsina States had been created. My joy knew no bounds. Of course, the first thing I did was to sit down and compose a letter to our beloved benefactor, President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who had graciously created a state for us.” “Before I tell you the content of that letter, I want to tell you another story. In 1994, by election, I became a Delegate to the Constitutional Conference which started that year and ended in 1995 under General Sani Abacha, GCFR. At the time of going to the conference, derivation stood at 1% with another 3% being given to OMPADEC for the development of the Niger Delta. I do not have to recount the battles that were fought within that Conference but suffice it to say that at the end of it all, it was declared that derivation will stand at not less than 13% and dichotomy shall not apply. “You can therefore imagine the shock and disbelief that greeted us when, after being sworn in, we were still receiving derivation payment at 1%. If the battle within the Conference to raise the percentage was brutal, the fight to get President Obasanjo, GCFR, to implement it was vicious. When, at last he was forced to accede to the 13% payment, he reintroduced the obnoxious principle of dichotomy between onshore and offshore oil production. This hit us with the force of a tsunami that brought on the next phase of the battle. With your total support, we found the strength to stand firm and fight on till God, in His loving mercy, came to our rescue by way of a Bill from the National Assembly to which the President assented.” Having fought this much Obong Attah, who said he left office as a thinking governor in 2007, having been adjudged one of the best performing governors, put himself up as an aspirant to vie for the presidency of this country and no doubt gained wide acceptability throughout the country. Sadly for him, Ibibio people, AKS, and indeed the entire country, that effort was aborted. DAILY INDEPENDENT September 9, 2014
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 04:41:23 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015