Additional details have emerged, providing context to a summarised financial handover document signed by former Anambra State governor Peter Obi upon the completion of his eight-year tenure in March 2014.
The 10-page document, one of which has earlier been made public, fuels the ongoing controversy over Anambra’s debt schedule and the feud between Obi and the state governor, Chukwuma Soludo.
While Obi, an NDC 2027 presidential aspirant, claims he left the state debt-free, the Anambra government has refuted this, attributing an original value of $123.77m to external debt, with $92.35m still outstanding as of June 30, 2026, signed by him.
However, Obi’s handover statement showed substantial investment assets, including $156m in foreign-currency investments and N27bn in local investments.
The document also revealed certified State and MDAs account balances of N28.166bn, recorded across 14 components, including the contested N2.140bn ecological fund, which the Soludo administration disputed.
With a FGN-approved refund of N10bn, Obi’s financial statement claimed to have handed over N91.666bn. It, however, highlighted a N5bn estimated liability, which was deducted to arrive at the net balance.
The N5bn, Obi stated, was for his successor, Willie Obiano, to settle salaries, pensions and gratuities, as well as approved certificates for already executed projects, leaving a net balance of N86.666bn.
Further breakdown showed that two investment portfolios documented by Access Bank ($49.9665m) and Fidelity Securities ($55.2028m) amounted to about $105.17m in Eurobond settlement values.
If treated as separate components of the $156m foreign-currency investment reported in the handover statement, the two portfolios would represent about 67% of the reported investment.
While Access Bank documented $748,750 in coupon payments as of January 31, 2014, a separate letter from Fidelity stated that the state had received $855,400 in total coupon income to date from investments in Access Bank and Nigerian sovereigns.
Notably, these investments by the Obi administration may not mean unrestricted money for Obiano to spend, given some of the listed funds were earmarked for ongoing programmes, particularly those contained in the MDAs balance document.
Some include the N2.102bn unutilised Universal Basic Education Commission-related funds; N1.390bn Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) balance; N4.644bn Set-Aside Accounts and N2.140bn Ecological Fund, among others.
Despite this financial document, the Anambra government has insisted that Obi’s contracting of eight external financing facilities contravenes his long-paraded assertion of not accruing debt for his successors.
The state government’s defence further extends to claims of unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities arrears by the Obi administration, with workers of the defunct State Water Corporation allegedly majorly affected.
“Over 200 Anambra Water Corporation staff died under Peter Obi’s administration as a result of non-payment of entitlements, while the corporation’s allocated funds were given as loans to private contractors,” the government said, backing its claims with old videos of workers protesting.
The government said, although it cleared about N22bn in inherited gratuity arrears of retired state and local government employees and teachers, there are still legacy arrears which have lingered from Obi’s administration.
The Anambra government also raised concerns over arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities owed to primary school teachers under the local government system, dating back to the administration of former governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
It said the Obi administration had verified and certified 16 months of salary arrears owed to the teachers and agreed to pay the debt in instalments, however, only five months out of the 16-month arrears.
What remains bleak is that despite the original value of Obi’s external debt at $123.77m, and the Debt Management Office record that put Anambra’s external-debt stock at about $30.32m as of December 2013, the question of what Obi drew down remains the lingering contention between both camps.
(The Whistler)
