On February 28, 2025 when a 104-person delegation from Akwa Ibom State paid a courtesy visit to President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, former Governor Victor Attah, whose name is often prefixed with Obong, was not among them. It was a conspicuous absence – enough to make headlines entirely on its own. In Nigeria, scores of newsworthy events occur almost every minute to the extent that available spaces and times can hardly accommodate all.
Another factor behind former Governor Victor Attah’s action of absence not making news may be non-sensitive noses of news hunters.
Tracing from his active political journey, which commenced with his membership of the National Centre Party of Nigeria in the mid 1990s, Attah’s opting out would not appear unusual to any informed person, except those suffering from amnesia.
As the then governor said in a speech in Uyo on May 2, 2002: “Of all those who eventually emerged as Governors in this country”, he “was the only one that was present at Otta on the day that General Olusegun Obasanjo declared his intention to run for the office of the president of this country. Prior to that, I had been approached and I had assured those who approached me that I would work to see to it that his candidature was fully endorsed in the South-South zone.”
Attah went further in the speech: “When PDP delegates were gathered at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, prior to the Convention in Jos, it was suggested that the Governors-elect, as we were then, should address the delegates from their respective states. But our candidate, General Obasanjo, insisted that I alone should address all the delegates. The result of the nomination in Jos shows that I did a convincing job.”
Coming from the horse’s mouth, no further testimony is required before knowing that Attah was frontally against the presidential aspiration of his political benefactor, Chief Don Etiebet. A few years ago, Anietie Okon, a former senator, who was the publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party at the time of the convention, told me that though Attah did his best to sway Akwa Ibom delegates to Obasanjo, his best was too mean to affect the state’s block votes for Etiebet, who emerged the second runner-up in the party’s shadow presidential election.
It shows that the binding forces of Attah’s political alliance with Etiebet were all about the governorship aspiration of the former and less, if any, on the interest of the latter; and that if an agreement of rubbing one another’s back was ever entered into, it collapsed the moment one finished rubbing the other’s back, even before the beneficiary mounted the throne of power.
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While Etiebet-Attah’s perspective remains a crucial dimension in chronicling the two-elephant fight that has become recurring decimals across Nigeria’s states since 1999, this writer prefers leaving that chapter of Nigeria’s political history for another time in a more elaborate documented work. But one should not miss the point that the trait of opting out from a coterie of people, even when certain sentiment dictated otherwise, is inbuilt in Attah – either ingrained by genes deposited in his blood by his parents or developed through a kind of “Atomic Habit” formation.
Being outstanding by absenting that Friday at Aso Rock is unusual in the context of what is common in Nigeria, but very usual as far as Attah’s character constitutes the tenet for such evaluation. It is a pointer that the trait remains intact and will live as long as the body it lives in lives. Whether it appears good or bad to others, helpful or hurting to another, Attah is almost always driven by his conviction.
The major highlight of that presidential parley was the conferment of the traditional title of “Otuekong Akwa Ibom” on President Tinubu by Ntenyin Solomon Etuk, the Oku Ibom Ibibio III, who is also doubled as the president of the state’s Traditional Rulers Council. Otuekong is spelt and pronounced Atuekong in Annang part of Akwa Ibom. It came into prominence in 1993 when the then Paramount Ruler of Ikot Ekpene, Okuku Etim Udo Ntekpere, led other Paramount Rulers and clan heads in Annang land in officiating the conferment of “Atuekong Annang” on Etiebet Denotatively, Atuekong means arsenal, amoury, and by connotation, it infers to amour, Field Marshal or Commander-in-chief.
Apart from fighting entrenched establishments in his private entrepreneurial and professional endeavours, which facilitated a number of institutional landmarks in Nigeria and enhances his name recognition, Etiebet has been on the frontline fight in giving Annang and, of course, Akwa Ibom, a niche in the local and global arena. Just as the title has been a fitting one on him, the business mogul values it almost at the same degree with his real name.
Aurally and glamorously dangling on him, Atuekong has since become quite an alluring title in Akwa Ibom. Although Etiebet is still protecting it with healthy jealousy, as well as living to the billings of the name, there has been proliferation of the conferment of Atuekong in many parts of Akwa Ibom. Even with that, Etiebet remains the real McCoy.
It is a statement of fact that Tinubu is currently the statutory commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of which Akwa Ibom is a prominent component of. So, what is the essence of giving him a title of a field marshal of a sub-national entity that he has never been involved in the struggles for its emancipation, let alone neither leading troupes nor winning any battle for it?
Would the Oba of Benin, Ooni of Ife, Olu of Warri, Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Kano embark on a crowded trip to Aso Rock to confer a traditional title to any Nigerian leader? What would Tinubu be crowned with in the event of paying a visit to the palace of Oku Ibom Ibibio?
The event of that Friday, which the spokesman of the Akwa Ibom State Government, Aniekan Umanah, said was a “February signed off on a good note”, was another self-inflicted denigration of the Akwa Ibom traditional institution. Can anyone fault the point that the event was devoid of paraphernalia of royalty, just as the aura of authority of the traditional institution that such crowning supposed to command was at abyss?
Concealed as it remains, there was a great deal of political covertness in the ceremonial visit. It would be too hasty to dismiss the notion that it was part of presidential allure to lure Governor Umo Eno and others in the PDP family to APC. What gesture from Tinubu or the ruling APC was Akwa Ibom reciprocating? For almost 10 years of running the national government from Abuja, it is hard to recall a president on the APC platform ever visiting Akwa Ibom, except when coming to canvass for votes every four years. So, one should not be queried for concluding that it was a cheapening of Akwa Ibom collective political enterprise before a politician Tinubu.
Given that the preparation for the trip was done higgledy piggledy, no prophecy is needed before situating that it could only take something in the mould of miracles for such an event to have achievement beyond the momentous epoch that it has already achieved. If such a miracle happens, however, I won’t hesitate to join in shouting hallelujah even if I am in the shrine of my great grandparents!
For heeding the governor’s urgent call to be at Aso Rock that day, the other 103 highly profiled people may not have been wrong. Eno may also have got his already high mark heightened for being a unifier of people of diverse divides in Akwa Ibom.
While Attah’s attitude of sometimes distancing himself from people of expected shared interest may constitute a subject for evaluation of his place in history, in view of multiple missing points outlined above, his self-exclusion from what was planned to be a 105-Akwa Ibom great men and women at Tinubu’s table is one standoffishness of his full of resounding impression.
• Ekanem sent this article from Lagos through nsikak4media@gmail.com.
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