By James Adamu
Peter Obi has pushed back hard against the Anambra State Government’s claim that his administration left behind loans the state is still repaying, declaring that he handed over a government free of unpaid obligations.
The former governor, who ran Anambra from 2006 to 2014, responded in a viral video to remarks by the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, that federal allocations are still being docked to service debts inherited from past administrations — including Obi’s and that of his successor, Willie Obiano.
Obi did not deny that debts exist. His argument is that none of them were left unpaid by him.
” 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 that no supplier or contractor who had completed a job and had their documents processed was owed a kobo.
“I paid what was due to be paid,” he insisted.
The N2.1bn he says he left behind
Obi also addressed an ecological fund, saying he left roughly N2.1 billion in a First Bank account earmarked for an erosion control project. The money, he said, came from the Federal Government shortly before he left office and was deliberately left untouched because it was tied to a specific purpose.
His reason, he explained, was continuity. “My people were saying, ‘let’s expend this money.’ But I kept telling them, government is a continuity and I want the person coming after me to succeed.”
He then raised the stakes: anyone who disputes his account should produce evidence, because he would abandon his presidential ambition if it were proven the money was not in the account at handover.
The exchange is coming in the middle of an intensifying 2027 presidential race, with Obi positioning himself as a leading challenger to President Bola Tinubu. Every claim about his record as governor is therefore both a historical argument and a live political weapon.
On the election itself, Obi struck a careful tone on governors’ loyalties. He conceded their right to back any candidate, but drew a line at the process.
“It is politics and their rights to support whoever they want,” he said. “I’m not urging them to support me. I am only urging them to allow free, fair and credible elections.”
The outcome, he added, should be decided by Nigerians — not by political office holders.
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