₦airaland Forum

Attah, who was Akwa Ibom governor from May 1999 to May 2007, the same time Obasanjo was Nigeria’s democratically elected president, said the then president instructed that the electricity generated from the Akwa Ibom power plant be added to the national grid.

The octogenarian was a guest on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

Attah decried the current constitution and arrangement in the country, saying a new constitution and federal arrangement will enable federating units to have powers to be coordinates and not subordinates.

He said what we have now is an authoritarian system called the Constitution because it was imposed by the military. “We need to go back to an agreeable constitution by our founding fathers at Independence,” he said, expressing disappointment that President Bola Tinubu has not started moves to make Nigeria have true federalism.

The ex-governor said, “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.

“I used Akwa Ibom money (to build the plant) but I cannot distribute power to Akwa Ibom people? I have to put in the National Grid that is failing all the time. That was how that ended.

“So, Akwa Ibom State, like every other state doesn’t have 24-hour constant power which was my dream for Akwa Ibom. If I had had it done, several other states would have followed suit.

“Interesting enough, only this morning I was reading the papers and I heard where our respected Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said we should decentralise power generation and distribution. That’s what I was trying to do but because of the faulty federal arrangement that we have I was stopped. It should not happen in a federal arrangement.”

Attah said he was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the time so Obasanjo’s disapproval wasn’t about party politics but about a faulty federal arrangement.

He said, “It does not say much about party politics; it says much about the constitution that we have — the non-federal constitution that we have. If we have a true federal constitution it would never have happened. I would have built my power station. Whatever party I belong to won’t have mattered. 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.

“We generate power and put it in the national grid – the inefficient national grid that is always collapsing…Every kobo that was spent was in Akwa Ibom money to build that power station but a faulty constitution and constitutional arrangement makes it possible for a president to say even this power station, I’m taking it from you and I’m putting it in the national grid.”

Attah applauded the amendment of the Electricity Act 2023 which significantly opened up the space for states to step into the power space, generate and distribute electricity as well as regulate the sector in their respective states.

“Now that the new law has been brought out, our governor (Umo Eno) is working very hard to make sure that we now have an Akwa Ibom power company that not only generate but distribute power to the people,” he said.

For decades, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has been faced with intractable energy challenges, no thanks to an epileptic power supply that significantly affects productivity levels. Despite the privatisation of the electricity sector, power generation, transmission and distribution have remained bogged with hydra-headed monsters of policy inconsistency, low investments and operational challenges.

In 2024, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved the upward review of electricity prices with a unit of power costing about N250 for Band A customers. The cost of petrol and diesel which are readily available alternatives have equally increased by fivefold, compounding the dilemma of consumers.

In the same year, NERC granted at least eight State’s Electrify Regulatory Commissions licenses to power plants and power distribution. The states are Enugu, Ekiti, Ondo, Imo, Edo, Kogi, Oyo and more recently, Lagos. Experts have described the move to democratise the electricity market as a step in the right direction, necessary to give a boost to the industrialisation of the country and increase productivity.

Bobodee09:
The man who always put himself out there as a saint.

ObJ is the foundation of the problem we are facing today.

A very greed and selfish man. No one must outshine him ,he always has problem with anything good coming from other people.

Bobodee09:
The man who always put himself out there as a saint.

ObJ is the foundation of the problem we are facing today.

A very greed and selfish man. No one must outshine him ,he always has problem with anything good coming from other people.

SmartPolician:
Obasanjo did exactly what the law permitted at the time. That was why it was called the national grid (everyone has to add to a national energy pool) and it was on the exclusive list. Yes, Obasanjo was right!

How about states that don't generate power but they are enjoying power from Kanji dam and other power stations in Nigeria?

Now that federal government isn't ready to shoulder that responsibility alone, Tinubu/Buhari et al has enacted laws that allow states to generate, transmit and distribute their own power.

slimfit1:
It's called encouraging laziness my brother. You can transport solidified gas by road to those state for gas power plants. He can change the laws we are not stupid my friend. Laws can be made and changed.

slimfit1:
It's called encouraging laziness my brother. You can transport solidified gas by road to those state for gas power plants. He can change the laws we are not stupid my friend. Laws can be made and changed. The north has 12 hours of sun no solar farm installations in abundance

SmartPolician:
It's either you didn't understand what you quoted or you are just being emotional, not logical. Nobody was encouraging lazy.

Government officials are elected to uphold the law; Obasanjo did what the law stipulated. Now that the law isn't working, the new government amended the law. It's as easy as ABC

ki02020:
hmmmm

Transport gas by Road
this special advice no dey OK ooo

it simple the old law was faulty, that God for the reviewed one

ki02020:
hmmmm

Transport gas by Road
this special advice no dey OK ooo

it simple the old law was faulty, that God for the reviewed one

lawani:
That is a solution. Gas can be transported in tankers by road. I wonder why President Onasanjo stopped Governor Attah and it was the same thing he did in Lagos

SmartPolician:
Obasanjo did exactly what the law permitted at the time. That was why it was called the national grid (everyone has to add to a national energy pool) and it was on the exclusive list. Yes, Obasanjo was right!

How about states that don't generate power but they are enjoying power from Kanji dam and other power stations in Nigeria?

Now that the FG isn't ready to shoulder that responsibility alone, Tinubu/Buhari et al has enacted laws that allow states to generate, transmit and distribute their own power. State governors should start building power stations now.

JohnBullMySon:
Exactly. I wanted to give that guy a reply before I saw yours. At that time the law only allowed for grid generation or non-commercial captive generation for all plants above 1mw. Obj simply followed the law.

SmartPolician:
Obasanjo did exactly what the law permitted at the time. That was why it was called the national grid (everyone has to add to a national energy pool) and it was on the exclusive list. Yes, Obasanjo was right!

How about states that don't generate power but they are enjoying power from Kanji dam and other power stations in Nigeria?

Now that the FG isn't ready to shoulder that responsibility alone, Tinubu/Buhari et al has enacted laws that allow states to generate, transmit and distribute their own power. State governors should start building power stations now.

PussyMiners:
Everyone can easily hide behind an unprogressive law to draw the country back.
How come saint OBJ didn’t remember the rule of law when he was leveling Odi and Zaki Biam. What about the extra constitutional methods he devised in removing some governors and senate presidents ??
Oh! I almost forgot how the paragon of rule of Law, Obasanjo, almost dribbled his way into getting a 3rd term that was clearly alien to our constitution.

It’s funny how defenders of inequities like yourself parrot rule of law only when it is convenient.

Like I always say, the Nigerian politicians hate anything that can benefit the common man .
It is akin to pushing KCl directly into their vein .

Leobankx:
A former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, has alleged that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo stopped him from distributing electricity to the people of the South-South state after he built a 191 megawatts power generation station.


https://www.channelstv.com/2025/01/17/obasanjo-stopped-me-from-distributing-electricity-to-akwa-ibom-after-i-built-power-plant-attah/

PussyMiners:
Everyone can easily hide behind an unprogressive law to draw the country back.
How come saint OBJ didn’t remember the rule of law when he was leveling Odi and Zaki Biam. What about the extra constitutional methods he devised in removing some governors and senate presidents ??
Oh! I almost forgot how the paragon of rule of Law, Obasanjo, almost dribbled his way into getting a 3rd term that was clearly alien to our constitution.

It’s funny how defenders of inequities like yourself parrot rule of law only when it is convenient.

Like I always say, the Nigerian politicians hate anything that can benefit the common man .
It is akin to pushing KCl directly into their vein .

Proudlyngwa:
OBJ.
The reason Nigeria is in this mess.

If he did not start this his under recovery over recovery bullshit, we should have known where we are.


The only saving grace OBJ has was that Nigerians never begin craze for Twitter during his tenure.


If not you guys would have known that Buhari is mother slessor and Tinubu Einstein compared to him.


During OBJ we had modakeke Ife crisis.
Aguleri umuleri crisis
Odi
Zaki ibiam
Warri crisis
Urobho ilaje war
Urobho isoko crisis.
Ijaw versus every body crisis.
Advent of bokoharam
Advent of militancy.
Jos miango Hausa crisis

Only him problem with his VP
5 senate President

Handpicked Yar'Adua.

Amaechi omehia issue
Orji Uzor Kalu problem,
Problem with Tinubu

And many more too numerous to put in this love letter.

Yet people still take him serious.

The greatest hypocrite that Nigeria has....

slimfit1:
He and Atiku did it to Lagos as well, that's why LAZY north didn't want to build their own power plants. If all state where forced to build a power plant at 700megawatts each we won't be having problems there will be jobs all around the country. But because some people want to sell generators we all should suffer. They know how to buy the best cars in the north and use planes to get it delivered to them but can't invest in basic infrastructures.