The Anambra State government has released what it termed the public debt records of the presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress NDC, Mr Peter Obi, while he was governor.
In a press statement signed by the Commissioner for
Information and Value Reformation, Dr Law Mefor, and titled Gov Peter Obi and
Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies, the state
government insisted Obi left behind debt as governor, both in domestic loans
and unpaid pensions and gratuity.
The statement read: “Our attention has been drawn to a viral
post by a former Governor of Anambra, HE Mr. Peter Obi, CON, on what he
described as Phantom Debts and Ecological Loan Fallacy, which presumably was in
response to some statements in a podcast by the Anambra State Commissioner for
Finance.
“We understand that this is a campaign season and candidates
often go to extremes to impress. If not that the said post was in his personal
handle, we would not have believed that he could have made such wild, and
verifiably false claims. As a government, we are focused 100% on delivering
dividends of democracy to millions of Ndi Anambra. However, when a former
governor of the state makes some outlandish claims about the state of public
debt he left behind and especially when the present government has been
spending billions of Naira servicing the same debt, a responsible government
owes the public a response in the interest of transparency and accountability.”
Stating what it described as the fact, the state government
clarified that: “HE Peter Obi Spent about $4.05 billion (equivalent to NS.4
trillion at current exchange rate) in 8 years and also contracted US$
123.77million in external debt alone which our government has so far paid
billions of Naira in service payments.
“Let’s be clear: hardly any government in the world has zero
debt stock. The issue is not whether or not borrowing is good: no business or
government can scale significantly without some debt. Yes, we converted the
audited and published expenditures using the average official exchange rates
during the eight years of Peter Obi and they sum to about USS$4.05 billion.
“At the current official exchange rate, it would sum to
about N5.4 trillon and he surely governed to the best of his ability. Of
course, no government will ever finish the work of development.”
“As of the date HE Peter Obi left office (17th March 2014),
there were and still are 8 different external borrowings his administration
left for his successors.
“As of June 30, 2026, the total balance of such loans left
by HE Peter Obi at the official exchange rate stood at N127.4Billion. Here we
summarise the latest report from the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Anambra’s
debt status (as of June 2026), indicating the dates the loans were signed and
the balance remaining.
“Evidently, HE Peter Obi borrowed for malaria, erosion
control, education, healthcare, etc. So far, this government pays hundreds of
millions of Naira every month to service these debts and we are not
complaining. It is good for Anambra once we can show the impacts.”
The state government further stated that as at when Obi left
office, he left behind a state without any functioning urban or rural water
schemes; increasing insecurity and increased poverty, ostensibly dead public
schools and dead public hospitals with grossly inadequate teachers and medical
personnel (indeed 44% of all communities in Anambra, 78 out of 179) did not and
still do not have any public primary schools (and this administration is only
beginning to close the gap).
They insisted he also left a decrepit infrastructure with
huge urban slums, etc.
“Only about 27% of Anambra residents patronised public
health institutions because of poor quality and non-functionality, which he
even admitted abandoning public health system at the recent NBA conference. We
are convinced that many Ndi Anambra would not have minded if HE Peter Obi had
borrowed to fix public schools and hospitals, water schemes, infrastructure, or
even to reduce poverty and insecurity. Debt, especially for bankable projects
and human capital development, is justifiable. So, HE Peter Obi should stop
being irked as if all debt is bad.”
The statement also said Obi owed verified salaries,
gratuity, and pension to retired teachers and staff of Water Corporation,
saying his statement on clearing all inherited arrears of pensions, salaries
and gratuities were patently false, but it would not want to get into the
debate between him and his predecessors regarding which arrears were paid by
them or by him.
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