September 20, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has rebuffed the presidency’s call on its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to honour a pledge to stop campaigning for the 2027 general poll following the Anambra State Government’s publication of financial transactions during Obi’s tenure as governor. His party said the presidency was joking.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Osa Director told THEWILL that the story of the state government amounts to “voodoo economics.” He used the earlier dismissive characterisation of Anambra State by the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr. Okonjo Iweala, as sufficient conclusion on the matter.
However, Governor Chukwuma Soludo and Peter Obi are going through the same public spat every election cycle.
During the 2023 election, both of them fell out. Then, Obi was with the Labour Party, and Soludo was governor of Anambra State. The governor fired the first salvo. Shortly before electioneering started for the 2023 general poll, Soludo published an extensive open letter, titled, “History Beckons and I Will Not Be Silent.” He stated in the publication that Peter Obi, as governor of the state, “left next to nothing,“ in investment and could not and would not win the 2023 presidential election, describing Obi’s Labour Party candidacy as more of a “political jamboree” or “media-driven theater than a viable path to victory.
Against the run of play, Obi emerged as the third runner-up with 6,101,533 votes in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, behind the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, who polled 6, 984, 520 million votes in 12 states, and the eventual winner, President Bola Tinubu, who scored 8,794,726 million votes in 12 states.
This time around, the dispute is virtually about the same subject. It deals with the long-running debate over the financial record Obi left behind. In a recent Washington, US, interview and in a subsequent Facebook post, Obi disclosed that he left office as governor without owing any debt.
“As at the day I left office, I was not owing any salary, pension or gratuity that Anambra State Government is supposed to pay,” he said, adding, “I was not owing any supplier or contractor that had executed his job and his documents processed, not one. The day I left office, I paid what was due to be paid. I wasn’t owing any contractors.”
According to Obi, the claim that he left debt, including N2.1 billion ecological funds, is “completely false.” He said his administration systematically liquidated historical gratuities and arrears dating back several years, amounting to over N35 billion.
On the N2.1 billion, Mr Obi stressed that his administration received the funds from the Federal Government about three months before he left office. He explained that he kept the funds in the state government’s account for the then-incoming government of Willie Obiano, who succeeded him in 2014.
“The (ecological) money was therefore left 100 per cent intact in First Bank, in Account No. 2018779464, with a balance of over N2.13 billion.
“It is important to stress that funds tied to specific projects or set aside for particular purposes were not even included in the over N75 billion in savings we left behind.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” he said. The Anambra State Government immediately took up the challenge and published a three-page document to state its own side of the argument.
According to the Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, Obi left behind external loans whose outstanding balance stood at N127.37billion as of June 30, 2026. Obi’s administration, Mefor said, obtained or inherited eight external loans that are still outstanding, with a combined balance of $92.35 million, equivalent to N127.37 billion, as of June 30, 2026.
The loans, according to the statement, were tied to projects, including malaria control, Fadama development, healthcare, education, community development, erosion control and value-chain development.
The government said the original value of the eight loans was about $123.77 million. It listed, among others, $48.33 million in additional financing for the Malaria Control Booster Project, of which $37.34 million remained outstanding as of June 30, 2026.
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It also listed a $37.89 million Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project loan, with $34.86 million outstanding. The state government said it was servicing the outstanding liabilities.
Mefor claimed that the current administration had inherited and cleared about N22 billion in gratuity arrears owed to retired state and local government employees and teachers.
Mefor said the government had obtained a certified statement of the First Bank account. Obi said his administration deposited the ecological fund and found no evidence that the alleged N2.13 billion was ever deposited into it.
However, Oseloka Obaze, the former Secretary to the Anambra State Government under Peter Obi, waded into the crisis on Thursday. The former SSG said he was personally present when Obi signed the handover documents on March 17, 2014, adding that Obiano received and acknowledged his copy of the documents, including certified bank statements and the handover report. According to him, the handover documents listed the financial position of the state, including funds and investments held by the government at the time Obi left office.
Obaze recalled that during the 2017 Anambra governorship debate organised by Channels Television, Obiano, “a certified accountant and auditor, had acknowledged during the debate that some funds were indeed available, while questioning the rationale behind keeping money when there was work to be done.” He also cited former banker and now Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, who publicly said in 2022 that Obi left at least $155 million for his successor. Otti said he was involved in helping Obi secure Eurobonds while he was managing director of Diamond Bank and that some of the investments had maturities extending to later years.
However, in an expert analysis, economics Professor Chiwuike Uba provides insight and concludes that both parties should move beyond rhetoric and deal with facts of the case.
According to him, the problem is not that the figures are necessarily false. The problem, he stated, is that different figures are being presented as though they answer the same question when they do not. He said that a loan commitment is not necessarily a disbursement or another set of figures. It identifies eight financing facilities signed between 2007 and 2013 and puts their aggregate original amounts at US$123.771 million. It then states that the outstanding balance on those facilities was US$92.353 million as at June 30, 2026, equivalent in the table to N127.372 billion.
He said, “At first glance, those numbers appear devastating. But an economist must resist the temptation to stop at the headline.
Look carefully at the table itself. The third column is headed “Loan Amount in USD as at Date Signed.” The fourth is headed “Outstanding Debt in USD as at 30 Jun 2026.” Those are completely different measures. The US$123.771 million is the aggregate of the original amounts associated with the facilities when they were signed. The US$92.353 million is the balance the State says remains outstanding on those facilities in June 2026. Neither figure is the debt stock as at March 17, 2014.
And that missing figure is the elephant in the room.
“If the purpose is to determine what Peter Obi actually handed over to Willie Obiano, then the relevant question is not simply how much financing was approved or contracted during Obi’s tenure. The relevant questions are: How much had actually been disbursed by March 17, 2014? The Debt Management Office recorded Anambra’s external debt stock at US$30.324 million as at December 31, 2013. Its revised domestic debt table recorded N3.026 billion for Anambra at the same period.
He said that anyone claiming that Anambra had absolutely no debt at the end of Peter Obi’s tenure has to reconcile that claim with the DMO’s official records.
But anyone claiming that Peter Obi handed over US$123.771 million in debt has an equally important burden of proof, he further added. “The US$123.771 million in the new Anambra publication is not described as the outstanding balance on March 17, 2014. It is the sum of the original amounts listed at the dates the facilities were signed.”
Felix Ifijeh is a journalist with years of professional reporting experience. Known for his keen news sense, compelling storytelling and commitment to accurate, impactful reporting, he has built a reputation for turning leads into clear, engaging, and well-structured reports that resonate with readers. His work reflects deep newsroom experience and a commitment to accurate, impactful journalism.
