Former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi has challenged the state government’s claim that he left behind $123.77 million in loans when he left office in March 2014, saying the figure does not tally with debt records he attributed to the Debt Management Office (DMO).
Obi addressed the controversy in a statement posted on his official X handle on Friday, September 25, saying the Anambra government had wrongly combined different categories of multilateral development financing and presented the total as debt inherited from his administration.
He said the state must distinguish between the total amount approved for multiyear development programmes, the amount actually drawn during his tenure and the balance outstanding when he handed over.
According to Obi, the facilities in question were largely World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) development programmes negotiated by the Federal Government and made available to participating states through subsidiary arrangements.
He argued that they were not conventional commercial loans personally secured by him while serving as governor.
Obi said the government’s figures raised a fundamental question, pointing to DMO records which, according to him, showed Anambra’s external debt at about $18 million when he assumed office in March 2006 and approximately $30 million when he left in March 2014.
He further cited a figure of about $45.15 million as the state’s external debt as of December 31, 2014, nine months after his departure.
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“The Anambra State Government must therefore clarify how a state whose recorded external debt was about US$30 million in March 2014 and US$45.15 million in December 2014 could supposedly have inherited US$123.77 million from Peter Obi, who left office in March of that same year.”
Obi also disputed any suggestion that he left the state in a weak financial position, saying his administration left more than $150 million as the dollar component of investments in Anambra.
He claimed the funds could have generated approximately $10 million annually if they had remained untouched.
He said the controversy should be resolved through verification of official records rather than political exchanges.
“I will neither engage nor trade words with anyone regarding my tenure in Anambra State.”
Obi said he would instead focus on issues affecting Nigerians, which he described as the motivation for his presidential ambition.