2027: Anambra Debt Records Put Peter Obi’s Fiscal Record Under Scrutiny
The financial record of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi has become a fresh political battleground ahead of the 2027 presidential election following claims by the Anambra State Government that external loans contracted during his administration remained outstanding after he left office.
The controversy escalated on Monday after the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council challenged Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, to address the figures and honour his earlier pledge to end his 2027 campaign if evidence emerged that his administration left financial liabilities behind.
The APC campaign council, in a statement by its spokesman, Dele Alake, argued that recent disclosures by the Anambra government had raised questions about Obi’s repeated defence of his fiscal record as governor.
At the centre of the dispute are eight external loan facilities which the Anambra government says were contracted between 2007 and 2013 during Obi’s tenure.
According to records released by the state government, the facilities originally amounted to about $123.77 million, while an outstanding balance of approximately $92.35 million—put at N127.37 billion as of June 30, 2026—remained.
The loans were reportedly connected to development programmes covering malaria control, healthcare, education, erosion and watershed management, community development and agriculture.
The state government maintains that subsequent administrations have continued servicing some of the obligations.
However, Obi has strongly disputed the interpretation of the figures and insists that he did not leave Anambra owing salaries, pensions, gratuities, suppliers or contractors for completed and certified projects when he handed over in March 2014.
He has maintained that his administration instead cleared more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears inherited from previous governments.
Obi also said his government left more than N75 billion in savings and maintained that over N2.13 billion earmarked for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion project remained untouched in a First Bank account when he left office.
The former governor had challenged the Anambra government to produce evidence that his administration left unpaid obligations, saying he would end his 2027 presidential campaign if his account was disproved.
It is that pledge that the APC Presidential Campaign Council is now seeking to turn into a major issue in the build-up to the 2027 election.
Alake said the APC was not suggesting that government borrowing was inherently wrong, but argued that the existence of loans associated with Obi’s administration was relevant because of the former governor’s public presentation of his record on fiscal management.
The campaign council also revived allegations concerning salary arrears involving employees of the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation.
It cited a purported 2006 memo from Obi’s then Chief of Staff, Chuks Ileogbunam, seeking the release of N15 million for workers’ salaries amid threats of protest.
The APC council claimed the episode contradicted Obi’s position on the payment of workers during his administration.
The Anambra government has separately claimed that some salary, pension and gratuity arrears predated and continued through Obi’s tenure, including obligations inherited from earlier administrations.
Obi’s position, however, is that his government systematically addressed inherited liabilities and owed no salaries, pensions or gratuities for which the state was responsible at the point of his departure.
The competing accounts have now shifted what began as a disagreement over Anambra’s historical finances into a broader political debate over Obi’s record as governor and the fiscal credentials he presents to voters ahead of 2027.
With the APC campaign organisation pressing the issue and Obi rejecting the interpretation being placed on the state’s debt records, attention is likely to remain on the underlying loan documentation, repayment schedules and the distinction between outstanding long-term external loans and unpaid liabilities due at the time Obi left office.
Those distinctions could become increasingly important as both sides seek to frame the former governor’s economic record in the run-up to the presidential election.
