The Presidency has challenged former Anambra State Governor and presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to quit the 2027 presidential race if it is established that his administration left behind outstanding financial liabilities.
The challenge came from Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, in a post on X on Wednesday.
Onanuga was reacting to the ongoing dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over debts and other financial obligations allegedly inherited from previous administrations.
“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 said the Anambra State Government had since presented claims concerning liabilities allegedly linked to Obi’s administration, including obligations to workers and pensioners.
“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.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” he asked.
Obi Rejects Debt Claims
The latest development followed a fresh response by the Anambra State Government to Obi’s rejection of claims that his administration left behind debts, contractor liabilities and unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities.
Obi said his administration cleared more than ₦35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears and handed over the state without outstanding salary, pension or gratuity obligations. He also said contractors whose projects had been duly executed and certified had been paid.
Obi further disputed the government’s claim concerning an alleged ₦2 billion ecological fund.
He said more than ₦2.13 billion had been left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis, adding that the funds were separate from the more than ₦75 billion in savings he said his administration left behind.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” Obi said.
Anambra Government Disputes Ecological Fund Claim
However, the Anambra State Government has disputed Obi’s account.
In a statement on Wednesday, Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, said the First Bank account identified by Obi was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.
Mefor said the government obtained a certified printout of the account and claimed that since it was opened in 2011, it had never recorded the amount Obi said was left in it, either as an inflow or balance.
The state government has also said records from the Debt Management Office show that eight external loans associated with projects undertaken during Obi’s administration remained outstanding as of June 30, 2026. It put the outstanding balance at $92.35 million, equivalent to about ₦127.37 billion using the exchange rate cited by the state.
The loans, according to the state government, were linked to projects in areas including healthcare, education, erosion control, agriculture and community development.
The competing accounts have placed the financial records surrounding Obi’s tenure and the circumstances of the 2014 handover at the centre of the latest political dispute. The claims remain contested by the parties involved.
