₦127.4bn outstanding balance alleged; former governor demands proof and says he would stop campaigning if indebtedness is established
UNITY TIMES SOUTHEAST BUREAU
Grow your business with us
The political confrontation between the Anambra State Government and former governor Peter Obi has escalated into a full-blown dispute over the state’s financial records, with the two sides presenting sharply different accounts of what Obi left behind when he left office in 2014.
The latest development came after the Anambra Government released what it described as records of external loans associated with the Obi administration, putting the outstanding balance at about ₦127.37 billion as of June 30, 2026, using the official exchange rate. The government said the figure represented an outstanding balance on eight external loans originally contracted for projects in areas including healthcare, education, malaria control, erosion management and agriculture.
The government said the eight loans amounted originally to about $123.7 million, with an outstanding balance of about $92.35 million, according to records it attributed to the state’s debt position and the Debt Management Office. The disclosure followed comments by the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, that the Soludo administration was still servicing loans and other obligations associated with previous administrations, including that of Obi.
Obi has rejected the allegations. The former governor, who is now the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, challenged the Anambra Government to establish that he left the state with unpaid debt. In a statement reported by Premium Times, Obi said he would stop his presidential campaign if the government could prove that he left such obligations behind.
The dispute has also expanded beyond conventional borrowing. The Anambra Government challenged Obi’s claim that he left more than ₦2.13 billion in an ecological fund account before leaving office. Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation Law Mefor said a certified bank statement obtained by the government did not support Obi’s description of the account or the amount claimed.
Obi’s broader position has been that he left Anambra without unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or obligations to contractors for duly executed and certified projects.
The central issue therefore goes beyond the increasingly heated political language surrounding the controversy. It is a question of documents, dates, loan agreements, repayment schedules, audited accounts and the precise obligations outstanding when power changed hands.
That distinction matters because a loan originally contracted during one administration can remain on a state’s books for years, with subsequent governments continuing repayment. Establishing who contracted a loan, who received the funds, what project it financed and what balance remained at a particular handover date requires documentary examination rather than political assertion.
The controversy is particularly significant as Obi prepares for the 2027 presidential election. His record as governor of Anambra remains a major part of his political identity, while the Soludo administration has an interest in presenting its own account of the state’s inherited finances.
For voters, the most consequential question may therefore not be which side produces the sharper political statement, but what the official records actually establish about Anambra’s finances at the point of transition in 2014. Until the underlying records are independently examined and the competing claims reconciled, the ₦127.4 billion figure should be understood as the current claim of the Anambra State Government, not as an independently established finding that Obi personally left that amount as debt.
The Anambra debt controversy is no longer merely an argument about the past. With 2027 approaching, it is rapidly becoming part of the larger political debate over accountability, public finance and the meaning of a governor’s legacy.
About The Author