The Anambra State Government has accused former Governor Peter Obi of leaving behind eight outstanding external loans when he left office in March 2014, putting the balance of the borrowings at ₦127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026.
The government said the loans, which it attributed to the eight-year administration of Obi, were still being serviced by successive administrations and had accumulated substantial naira liabilities because they were denominated largely in foreign currency.
The Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr Law Mefor, disclosed this in a statement issued in Awka on Wednesday, titled, “Gov Peter Obi and Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies.”
Mefor said the statement was issued in response to recent claims by Obi, who is also the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), that he did not leave unpaid loans or other outstanding financial obligations when he handed over power on March 17, 2014.
According to the Anambra Government, records from the Debt Management Office show that Obi’s administration contracted eight external loans between 2007 and 2013, with the original borrowings valued at about $123.77 million.
The state said the outstanding balance of those loans stood at about $92.35 million, equivalent to approximately ₦127.37 billion at the official exchange rate as of June 30, 2026.
The government said the loans were obtained for a number of development programmes, including malaria control, education, healthcare, erosion management, agricultural development and community-related projects.
Mefor said the state was not arguing that borrowing was inherently wrong, noting that governments could legitimately obtain loans to finance projects capable of producing long-term benefits.
However, he maintained that the existence of outstanding liabilities meant Obi could not accurately claim that his administration left no unpaid loans.
The commissioner said the present administration had continued to make debt-service payments on the loans attributed to the former governor’s tenure.
He said the government had released the information because it considered it necessary to provide the public with a clear account of the state’s debt position amid the competing claims by Obi and the current administration.
According to Mefor, the government had no intention of denying the developmental projects for which some of the loans were obtained.
Rather, he said, the issue was whether the financial obligations remained outstanding when Obi left office.
The controversy followed a recent statement by Obi in which he rejected claims that his administration left behind significant unpaid liabilities.
The former governor had specifically challenged the Anambra Government to provide evidence that his administration owed salaries, pensions, gratuities or contractors for duly executed and certified projects.
Obi said his administration had systematically cleared historical arrears amounting to more than ₦35 billion and insisted that, at the point of handover, the state had no outstanding salary, pension or gratuity obligations.
He also challenged the government to provide documentary evidence to support its allegations, saying he would stop his presidential campaign if it could establish that he left behind unpaid debts or contractor liabilities.
The former governor separately disputed the government’s account of an alleged ₦2 billion ecological fund.
Obi had maintained that about ₦2 billion released shortly before he left office for the Oko and Umuchiana erosion crisis remained untouched in a First Bank account at the UNIZIK branch in Awka.
He subsequently said the money was not part of the state’s general savings and had been preserved for the purpose for which it was released.
The Anambra Government, however, rejected that account.
Mefor said there was no evidence in the account identified by Obi that such an ecological fund had ever been deposited.
According to him, the First Bank account cited by the former governor was an Internally Generated Revenue–Consolidated Revenue Account, rather than an ecological fund account.
The commissioner said available records dating back to the opening of the account in 2011 did not show an inflow or balance corresponding to the amount claimed by Obi.
He consequently challenged the former governor to explain the basis for identifying the account as an ecological fund account.
The disagreement over the ecological fund has become another major point of contention between Obi and the Anambra Government, alongside the broader dispute over the state’s debt profile.
Mefor also disputed Obi’s claim that his administration had completely cleared inherited arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities.
The commissioner alleged that verified obligations remained outstanding to some retired teachers and former staff of the Anambra State Water Corporation when Obi left office.
The state government further alleged that the former administration left significant challenges in the water, education and healthcare sectors.
It claimed that Anambra had no functioning comprehensive urban or rural water schemes and alleged that public schools and hospitals were operating with inadequate personnel and infrastructure.
Those claims, however, form part of the wider political dispute between the current administration and the former governor and have been rejected or challenged by Obi.
The government’s latest statement also placed the controversy within the broader context of public borrowing and government expenditure.
Mefor claimed that Obi’s administration spent approximately $4.05 billion over its eight years in office, a figure the state said would amount to about ₦5.4 trillion when converted at the current official exchange rate.
The government said the expenditure figures were derived from audited and published records and converted using the average official exchange rates applicable during the period.
It also acknowledged that borrowing itself was not necessarily evidence of financial mismanagement.
The state argued that governments could legitimately borrow to finance development, particularly where the money was invested in productive projects and human capital.
The key issue, according to the government, was therefore not simply whether Anambra borrowed money but the amount borrowed, the projects financed, the terms of the loans and the liabilities that remained outstanding after Obi’s departure.
The controversy highlights the difficulty of comparing historical debt figures across different periods because foreign-currency loans can produce substantially different naira values depending on prevailing exchange rates.
The ₦127.4 billion figure cited by the Anambra Government represents the value of the outstanding foreign-currency obligations at the official exchange rate applicable in June 2026. It should therefore not be interpreted as the original naira value of the loans when they were contracted.
The latest exchange between the former governor and the state government has nevertheless intensified debate over Anambra’s historical finances, particularly as Obi prepares for the 2027 presidential election under the NDC.
For the Anambra Government, the debt records demonstrate that financial obligations contracted during Obi’s tenure remained on the state’s books after he left office.
For Obi, the central argument remains that his administration cleared substantial inherited liabilities and handed over a state without unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or certified contractor debts.
The competing positions have made documentary evidence particularly important.
The Debt Management Office records cited by the Anambra Government provide information on the state’s outstanding debt stock, while the precise circumstances surrounding each loan, its utilisation, repayment history and responsibility for individual liabilities remain subjects that can be established through official financial and audit records.
As the dispute continues, the conflicting claims are likely to remain part of the political debate surrounding Obi’s record as governor and his campaign for the presidency in 2027.
What remains undisputed is that the Anambra Government says it is continuing to service external obligations associated with loans contracted during previous administrations, while Obi maintains that the current government has misrepresented his financial record.
The continuing controversy therefore places renewed emphasis on transparency, access to public debt records and independent verification of claims concerning the state’s finances.
