Former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has pushed back against claims that he left the state saddled with over $123 million in debt, insisting instead that he handed over Anambra in the strongest financial position of any state in Nigeria.
Speaking for the first time in days after mourning the death of his close friend and elder brother, Chief Okey Ezeibe, Obi said he wanted to correct what he called a misleading characterisation of multilateral development funds as personal debt he had accumulated while in office.
He explained via his X handle on Friday that he never approached any financial institution to borrow funds or float a bond during his tenure, noting that a former Director-General of the Debt Management Office once recognised him as the only state governor in a decade who had never sought a loan facility from the agency.
He added that Anambra owed no unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities, or verified contractor payments when he left office in March 2014.
On the disputed figures, Obi argued that the state government had wrongly combined three separate categories; total program approvals, actual drawdowns during his tenure, and the outstanding balance at handover, into a single number describing it as debt he left behind.
He said the funds in question were largely World Bank and IFAD development financing negotiated by the Federal Government and channeled to states through subsidiary arrangements, not commercial loans he personally secured.
Citing DMO records, he said Anambra’s external debt stood at about $18 million when he took office in 2006, roughly $30 million when he left in March 2014, and around $45 million by December 2014, figures he said contradict the state’s claim that he left behind $123.77 million in obligations.
Obi also said he left more than $150 million in dollar investments for the state when he departed office, which he said could have generated significant annual income and, if properly managed, more than covered the disputed debt over the years since.
He said he would not engage further on the matter, stating his attention is now on the broader economic hardship facing Nigerians, which he described as the driving force behind his presidential ambition.
