
According to a report published by Channels TV, Obong Victor Attah, the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, has revealed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo halted his efforts to provide electricity to the people of Akwa Ibom, despite Attah having built a 191-megawatt power plant in the state.
Attah, who governed Akwa Ibom from 1999 to 2007, stated that the plant he constructed was meant to supply power to the state independently. However, President Obasanjo directed that the generated electricity be added to the national grid rather than be distributed locally.
Attah made these remarks during his appearance on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme broadcast on Channels Television. He explained that his initiative to supply electricity to the state was thwarted by what he described as a flawed federal arrangement in Nigeria.
At the time, Attah was a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and he emphasized that Obasanjo’s opposition was not politically motivated but stemmed from the central government’s control over power distribution, which he argued was limiting the autonomy of individual states.
“I decided I want to give Akwa Ibom state power. The president said no, the Federal Government is providing power for the country. I said: ‘I want to give Akwa Ibom State power’ and then I succeeded in building that power station.
The president came and I saw that he was happy about what I was doing. He commissioned the power station but went back to Abuja and brought a law that if you generate, you cannot distribute it,” Attah recalled.
Despite investing significant state resources into building the power plant, Attah said that Akwa Ibom was not allowed to enjoy the benefits of its own investment. Instead, the generated electricity was placed into the national grid, which he criticized for its frequent failures.
He lamented that the state’s inability to provide consistent 24-hour power for its residents, which was his vision, delayed broader regional development.
Attah attributed the obstacle he faced to what he sees as an authoritarian system embedded in Nigeria’s current constitution. He believes that if Nigeria had a true federal structure, states would have more autonomy to handle such matters independently.
“What is fundamentally wrong with us is the nature of the constitution that we have today — it is not a federal constitution and unless and until we go federal, we will not make progress,” he remarked.
SOURCE: Olawright