The Presidency on Wednesday challenged the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Peter Obi, to make good his threat to quit the 2027 presidential race if claims that he left Anambra State without outstanding debts and financial liabilities were proved wrong.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, threw the challenge in a brief comment on his verified X handle, following fresh claims by the Anambra State Government that liabilities dating to Obi’s tenure as governor remained outstanding.
Onanuga said the latest figures released by the state government put the burden back on Obi to show whether he would stand by his earlier declaration that he would stop campaigning if evidence contrary to his account of the state’s finances emerged.
“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.
“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.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” Onanuga asked.
The Presidency’s intervention is the latest development in an escalating dispute between Obi and Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration over Anambra State’s financial position after the former governor left office in March 2014.
The controversy was reignited on Monday when the state Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, said the Soludo administration was still servicing loans contracted by previous administrations, including those of Obi and his successor, Willie Obiano.
Okafor, who spoke on the Voice of Ndi Anambra Podcast, said deductions were still being made from the state’s monthly Federation Account allocation to service the inherited loans, even though the Soludo administration had not taken any commercial bank loan since coming into office.
He said, “Every month during our FAAC meetings, when you see the schedule of FAAC, you will notice there are substantial, significant deductions from our own FAAC because of loans previously borrowed by previous administrations.”
Obi subsequently rejected the claims, insisting that his administration settled all obligations that were due before he handed over in 2014. He maintained that the state owed no salaries, pensions or gratuities and had no outstanding payments to contractors for duly executed and certified projects.
In a further statement on Tuesday, the NDC presidential candidate described allegations that his administration left inherited debts, including a disputed N2 billion ecological fund and unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities, as “completely false.”
Obi said his administration systematically liquidated more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears, while maintaining that it left more than N75 billion in savings and investments for the succeeding administration.
He also said more than N2.13 billion meant for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis remained intact in a First Bank account because the money arrived about three months before the end of his administration and was tied to a specific project.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” Obi declared.
But the Anambra State Government on Wednesday disputed Obi’s account, with the Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, releasing what the government described as records of liabilities associated with his tenure.
Mefor said eight external loans linked to projects implemented during Obi’s administration had a combined outstanding balance of about $92.35 million, or N127.37 billion at the official exchange rate, as of June 30, 2026.
The facilities covered projects in malaria control, agriculture, healthcare, education, community development, erosion management and agricultural value chains.
The commissioner also challenged Obi’s assertion that he left no unpaid salaries, gratuities or pensions, saying the current administration had cleared about N22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears while some legacy obligations remained.
According to Mefor, salary arrears owed to workers of the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation persisted through Obi’s tenure and eventually went to court, while the Soludo administration negotiated a settlement and paid the first two of three agreed instalments.
The state government further alleged that Obi’s administration verified 16 months of salary arrears owed to primary school teachers but paid only five months, leaving 11 months unresolved.
Mefor said a committee headed by the state’s Head of Service had been formed to conduct fresh verification before payment.
The government equally disputed Obi’s account of the N2.13 billion ecological fund, saying the First Bank account cited by the former governor was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account rather than an ecological fund account.
Mefor said a certified printout of the account showed that from its opening in 2011 to date, the account had never recorded the N2.13 billion as either an inflow or a balance.
Against the backdrop of the conflicting accounts and Obi’s pledge to stop campaigning if his claims were disproved, Onanuga on Wednesday challenged the NDC presidential candidate to act on his undertaking.
