To the people of Kwara State, the demise of the first executive governor, Alhaji Adamu Attah, is no doubt a huge loss. Though, the late Attah had left active politics for some time before his death, he was someone that many in the old Kwara State – now Kwara and Kogi states – looked up to as a father figure.

Attah, who hailed from the part of the old state that is now in Kogi State, was governor between 1979 and 1983 under the platform of the defunct National Party of Nigeria. He was the son of a warrant chief, Ibrahim Attah, whom the British colonialists had granted powers under the Native Authority system. In 1967, he was permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance and a member of the Constituent Assembly in 1976. He was trained in the United Kingdom before he had a stint at the Electronic Company of Nigeria (ECN).

Attah became the first civilian governor of the old Kwara State, despite coming from a minority ethnic group, largely due to the influence and support of the late strongman of Kwara politics, Dr. Olusola Saraki. The achievements of the Attah administration, particularly, in infrastructure, remain legendary.

The milestone successes recorded during the Attah administration included construction of Kwara Hotel phase 2, the present Governor’s Office in Ilorin, a foam industry, Sobi Specialist Hospital, office of the Head of Service, Hajj Camp,