“Someday, we in Nigeria will get our priorities right; our democracy will be renewed, and then Nigeria will be great again,” former Akwa Ibom Governor Obong Victor Attah told a captivated audience, ending a day of celebration, reflection, and life lessons drawn from his 87 years.

The occasion was the launch of a long-awaited book chronicling his career—a work 13 years in the making. Attah used the moment to share stories that never made it to the pages, revealing both the humour and contradictions of Nigerian life.

He recounted 1975 in Kaduna, when he ran Inter-Design Partnership, where a British engineer rode a bicycle to work daily. When Attah borrowed it for a day, his secretary was aghast: “All my friends are laughing at me. They say my boss rides a bicycle.” With a smile, he noted, “That tells you how Nigerians see the ‘big man.'”

Attah also told of 1966, during his early career in Barbados, when he expanded the prestigious Sandy Lane Hotel by 25 rooms.

Decades later, as governor, he personally welcomed the late First Lady Stella Obasanjo to the same hotel—only to be questioned by the EFCC about his connection. “That tells you the type of Nigeria we have,” he remarked.

Throughout, Attah emphasised the principles that guided his life: lowly toil, simple pleasures, courage, contentment, and gratitude—values taught to him in childhood through the family prayer of Chief Bassey Udo Bature’s children.

The book launch was chaired by former President Goodluck Jonathan, who postponed personal celebrations to honour Attah. Reflecting on his return to architecture after public office, he told the audience: “I was a professional in politics, not a professional politician.

“If Jimmy Carter could return to a peanut farm after being President, I feel no compunction returning to my profession after my tenure as governor.”

As applause filled the hall, Attah’s words resonated not just as personal reflection but as a hopeful vision for Nigeria’s future.

Meanwhile, former President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday delivered an emotional tribute to former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Obong (Arc.) Victor Attah, describing him as the man whose courage and stubborn insistence on fairness fundamentally transformed the economic destiny of the Niger Delta.

Speaking at the public presentation of Architect of a New Dawn, Attah’s new biography, Jonathan told an audience of political leaders, traditional rulers and admirers that today’s Akwa Ibom would have been “a completely different place” without Attah’s historic battle against the onshore–offshore oil dichotomy.

Jonathan, who recounted working at OMPADEC as a young technocrat, said Akwa Ibom’s allocation at the time was so meagre that it barely registered at the federal level.

“Akwa Ibom was receiving only one per cent. One per cent,” he stressed. “Those who enjoy the huge revenue today must understand the struggle that made it possible.”

And at the centre of that struggle, he said, stood one man.

“Victor Attah was not just part of the fight. He was the lion leading the charge,” Jonathan declared. “Others fought, yes. But Attah was the champion — number one.”