The Presidency has challenged the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to quit the 2027 presidential race if claims that he left Anambra State with outstanding debts and liabilities are established.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, issued the challenge in a post on his official X account on Wednesday, following the renewed dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the financial position of the state at the end of his administration.
Onanuga recalled that Obi had claimed that he left Anambra State without outstanding debts and had publicly offered to withdraw from the 2027 presidential contest if anyone could prove otherwise.
He wrote, “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.”
The presidential aide said the Anambra State Government had since presented what it described as records and figures showing that liabilities were inherited from the Obi administration.
“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,” Onanuga said.
He then asked whether Obi would follow through on his earlier statement.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” he asked.
The latest development followed a fresh exchange between Obi and the Anambra State Government over claims concerning the state’s finances when he left office in March 2014.
Obi had on Tuesday rejected claims that his administration left behind inherited debts, including a ₦2 billion ecological loan, contractor liabilities and unpaid salaries, gratuities and pensions.
The former Anambra governor said his administration had systematically cleared historical gratuity and salary arrears amounting to more than ₦35 billion.
“At the point of handover, the state owed nothing in salaries, gratuities, or pensions, nor did we owe anything to any contractor for projects duly executed and certified,” Obi said.
He also disputed the state government’s account of an ecological fund reportedly released shortly before the end of his tenure for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.
Obi said the money was deliberately left untouched for his successor because it was tied to a specific project.
According to him, more than ₦2.13 billion remained intact in a First Bank account, which he identified as account number 2018779464.
He said the funds were separate from more than ₦75 billion in savings he claimed his administration left behind.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” Obi said.
However, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, disputed the former governor’s account.
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Mefor said the state government had obtained a certified printout of the First Bank account identified by Obi and claimed the account was not an ecological fund account.
“We have obtained a certified printout of the account from inception to date. The account is an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account,” Mefor said.
He further claimed that the account had never recorded the amount Obi cited as either an inflow or balance.
“From 2011 when the account was opened until date, there has never been any such amount—whether as inflow or balance—in the account,” the commissioner said.
Mefor consequently challenged Obi to explain where the ₦2.13 billion he claimed to have left for his successor was kept.
The commissioner also disputed Obi’s broader claim that his administration left Anambra without financial liabilities.
According to Mefor, eight external loans remained outstanding after Obi left office on March 17, 2014. He said the outstanding balance of the loans stood at ₦127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, calculated at the official exchange rate.
The loans listed by the state government included projects relating to malaria control, agriculture, healthcare, education, community development and erosion management.
Mefor also challenged Obi’s claim that no salary, gratuity or pension obligations were outstanding when he left office.
He said the Soludo administration had cleared about ₦22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears but maintained that some legacy liabilities from previous administrations remained.
The commissioner specifically mentioned retired teachers and workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation.
He said salary arrears owed Water Corporation workers had continued through the Obi administration before eventually being settled by the present administration in instalments.
Mefor also alleged that the Obi administration verified and certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid only five months.
The commissioner further questioned Obi’s claim that his administration left more than ₦75 billion in savings.
“We will not engage in nebulous creative accounting. If there were ₦75 billion in savings, as claimed, where are the records?” he asked.
The exchange has now drawn the Presidency directly into the dispute, with Onanuga using the former governor’s own pledge as the basis for challenging him over the conflicting accounts.
The claims and counterclaims concerning the state’s finances remain disputed by the parties involved.