Presidency dares Obi to quit over Anambra debts

Abimbola Joseph

The Presidency has challenged Peter Obi to quit the 2027 presidential race if the Anambra State Government proves that he left behind outstanding debts and other financial liabilities when he left office as governor in 2014.

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, issued the challenge on Wednesday, following fresh claims by the Anambra Government that Obi’s administration left unpaid obligations.

Onanuga said Obi had previously claimed that he handed over Anambra without outstanding debt and had pledged to stop his presidential campaign if anyone proved otherwise.

“Peter Obi claimed he left Anambra with a clean slate of debt and even threatened to quit the presidential race if his claims were proven otherwise,” Onanuga said in a post on X.

He added that the Anambra Government had now presented what it described as facts and figures contradicting Obi’s account.

“Now, the Anambra government has confronted him with facts and figures showing he owed Water Corporation workers, teachers, and pension and gratuities, and had also borrowed for frivolous things,” Onanuga said.

“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” he asked.

The latest confrontation followed Obi’s rejection of allegations that his administration left behind inherited debts, including liabilities linked to an ecological fund, contractors, salaries, pensions and gratuities.

Obi, the Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, said on Tuesday that his administration had cleared more than ₦35bn in historical gratuities and arrears before handing over power.

He maintained that, at the point of handover, Anambra owed nothing in salaries, pensions, gratuities or certified contractor obligations.

Obi also disputed the government’s claim concerning an ecological fund, saying more than ₦2.13bn had been left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion-control project.

He challenged anyone capable of disproving his account, declaring that he would stop campaigning if his claims were shown to be wrong.

But Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, disputed Obi’s account, saying the First Bank account identified by the former governor was not an ecological fund account.

Mefor said the government had obtained a certified printout of the account and that it was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account.

He said the records showed that the account had never contained the ₦2.13bn claimed by Obi, either as an inflow or balance, since it was opened in 2011.

The commissioner also said eight external loans associated with projects approved during Obi’s administration remained outstanding, with a balance of about $92.35m, equivalent to approximately ₦127.4bn at the exchange rate used by the state government as of June 30, 2026.

The loans, according to the government, were linked to projects covering malaria control, agriculture, health, education, community development, erosion and watershed management and value-chain development.

Mefor further disputed Obi’s claim that his administration left no unpaid worker obligations, saying the current government had cleared about ₦22bn in inherited gratuity arrears but that some legacy liabilities remained.

He cited arrears involving retired teachers and Water Corporation workers, among other obligations.

The debt controversy has now become a fresh political confrontation ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with Obi insisting that his record can withstand scrutiny and the Anambra Government maintaining that its records show otherwise.

The Presidency has seized on the dispute to challenge Obi to honour his own pledge if the allegations against his administration are established.