Photo by Abayomi Adeshida Akwa Ibom State Governor, Victor Attah (right), hands over his letter of intent to the chairman of the PDP Presidential Candidate Search Committee, Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, during a ceremony at the Ekiti House, CBD, Abuja.

Chief Victor Attah was born on November 20, 1938, the third son of the late Chief Bassey Udo Adiaha Attah. His father was one of the six Ibibio indigenes sponsored by the Ibibio Union to Study in the United States of America and Great Britain, a program so successful that even the Colonial British praised it. His politically enlightened mother, Madam Agnes Bassey Attah, was co-founder and president of the Ibibio Women’s Union.

Attah received his primary education in Uyo and Calabar, attended the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria (now ABU) from 1957 to 1960 and attained his intermediate Diploma from the Royal Institute of British Architects. Between 1962 and 1964, he attended the Leeds School of Architecture for his first degree, and obtained a post graduate diploma from the Building Science Department of Liverpool University. He earned a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University, New York. He has lived and worked throughout Nigeria and its neighbors.

As an architect, he has handled myriad challenging projects. These include projects in Nigeria, London, New York and Barbados.

He was a principal architect of the Federal Capital Territory and the nation’s new capital city, Abuja.
Entering politics in 1994, he has won every election he has stood for, including the presidency of the Nigerian Institute of Architects. He is best known for his triumphant coup in the area of resource control, where he wrested 13% of oil revenues from the federal government. He describes resource control in terms of "partnership in development, wherever resources abound."
Governor Victor Bassey Attah is married to Alison Attah and they have a daughter and a son.