The Presidency has challenged former Anambra State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to quit the 2027 presidential race if claims about the state’s finances during his tenure are proven wrong.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made the challenge in a post on X on Wednesday, following an ongoing dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over debts and other financial liabilities allegedly inherited from his administration.
Onanuga said Obi had previously claimed that he left Anambra without outstanding debt and had pledged to stop campaigning if anyone could establish otherwise.
“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,” Onanuga wrote.
He added that the Anambra State Government had responded with claims concerning outstanding liabilities allegedly linked to Obi’s 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,” he said.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” Onanuga asked.
The development followed a fresh response from the Anambra State Government to Obi’s denial of claims that his administration left behind debts and other financial obligations.
Obi had said his administration cleared more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without outstanding salary, pension or gratuity obligations. He also disputed the state government’s account of an alleged N2.13 billion ecological fund, saying the money was left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.
However, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, disputed Obi’s account, saying the First Bank account identified by the former governor was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.
Mefor said the state government obtained a certified printout of the account from its inception and claimed that it had never recorded the amount cited by Obi as either an inflow or balance.
The Anambra Government also said records from the Debt Management Office showed that eight external loans associated with projects approved during previous administrations remained outstanding. According to the state, the balance of those loans stood at $92.35 million, equivalent to about N127.37 billion at the exchange rate used in its statement, as of June 30, 2026.
The state government further disputed Obi’s claim that his administration left no salary, pension or gratuity arrears, citing liabilities involving retired workers, teachers and staff of the defunct Water Corporation. It said the Soludo administration had paid about N22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears while continuing to address other outstanding obligations.
Obi has maintained that his account of the state’s finances is accurate and challenged anyone to produce evidence proving otherwise.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” he said.
The competing claims over Anambra’s financial position remain disputed, with the former governor and the state government presenting different accounts of the liabilities and funds associated with the period before Obi left office in 2014.
