By Emmanuel Thomas l Monday, Sept 14, 2026
AWKA — Former Governor of Anambra State and presidential hopeful, Mr. Peter Obi, has issued a fiery rebuttal to claims by the Anambra State Government that the current administration is still servicing debt liabilities incurred during his tenure.
Vigorously defending his financial stewardship, Obi staked his entire political future on his record, daring anyone to prove he left government with unpaid debts or abandon his political ambitions altogether.
“I left office as Governor nearly 13 years ago,” Obi stated. “On the day I left office, I was not owing any salaries, pensions, gratuities, or any money that the Anambra State Government was supposed to pay. I did not owe a single supplier or contractor. If you find even one person I owed, I will end my 2027 campaign today.”
Obi went further to reiterate his fiscal health upon departure, noting, “I left a balance of ₦2,139,951,400 at First Bank alone,” before downplaying Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s political clout with a sharp reminder: “Soludo has only one vote in Anambra State.”
Background to the Conflict
The latest friction between the two prominent Anambra political figures follows public disclosures made by the Anambra State Government through the State Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor.
Speaking during a state-hosted podcast, Okafor stated that despite the Soludo administration’s policy against taking commercial bank loans, monthly allocations to the state from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) were still subject to significant deductions to service inherited legacy debt, including foreign and multilateral loans contracted during the tenures of previous governors, notably Peter Obi and his successor, Willie Obiano.
Obi, who governed Anambra State from 2006 to 2014, has consistently built his national political brand on frugal public management, fiscal discipline, and accountable governance.
He has maintained over the years that he did not leave behind debt liabilities, pointing instead to savings left in local banks—including foreign currency investments worth $150 million—to back his claim of financial prudence.
However, the political relationship between Obi and Soludo, a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, has remained tense since Soludo assumed office in 2022.
Tensions previously flared when Soludo publicly questioned the present-day value and impact of investments made by Obi’s administration, setting off a long-running public debate between both camps over the state’s true financial standing.
Obi’s swift, high-stakes rebuttal—linking his presidential ambition to his financial integrity—underlines the heightened political stakes as alliances and records come under scrutiny ahead of the 2027 general elections.
By challenging critics to produce a single unpaid contractor or creditor from his time in office, the former governor aims to protect the core pillar of his national appeal: an unimpeachable record of public resource management.
On the other hand, the Soludo administration maintains that long-term development facilities and multilateral commitments inherited from past eras continue to impact state balance sheets.
As the war of words continues, the debate over Anambra’s legacy accounts is set to remain a key flashpoint in both state and national political discourse.
