Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, has maintained that he did not borrow money or issue bonds on behalf of Anambra State during his tenure as governor, insisting that he left office without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or certified contractor obligations.
Obi made the clarification on Arise TV’s Prime Time programme on Thursday while responding to allegations by the Anambra State Government that his administration left outstanding loans and other financial liabilities for successive governments to service.
The former governor said he did not approach any financial institution to obtain loans for the state during his eight years in office. He also argued that some of the funding being attributed to his administration came through Federal Government-supported concessionary programmes involving multilateral institutions.
According to Obi, Anambra, Ekiti and Bauchi were selected to benefit from World Bank-supported funding because of their performance in education. He maintained that the funding was not a commercial bank loan obtained directly by his administration and noted that some drawdowns under the State Education Programme Investment Project occurred after he left office.
Obi further argued that an approved loan facility should not automatically be treated as debt incurred if the funds were not drawn down. He said public-sector accounting should distinguish between the total value of a facility and the amount actually accessed and spent by a government.
The controversy followed claims by the Anambra State Government that eight external borrowings contracted during Obi’s tenure remained outstanding. The state said the loans had an original value of about $123.77 million, with an outstanding balance of about $92.35 million, equivalent to N127.4 billion at the official exchange rate as of June 30, 2026.
However, Anambra Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, acknowledged in an earlier interview that the government did not have the precise figures for how much of the facilities was actually drawn down during Obi’s tenure and said the figures needed to be reconciled with the Debt Management Office.
Obi also cited former Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Abraham Nwankwo, in support of his claim, saying Nwankwo had publicly stated that he was the only governor who did not visit the DMO office to seek approval to borrow money.
The former governor has previously challenged the state government to provide evidence that his administration left unpaid debts, salaries, pensions, gratuities or certified contractor obligations, maintaining that his administration cleared more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears.
