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| National Identity Enrollment |
The Anambra State government has publicly released what it terms the official debt records of former Governor Peter Obi, directly challenging his recent assertions of “phantom debts” and an ecological loan fallacy. In a detailed press statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr Law Mefor, the administration insisted that Obi left behind both external loans and substantial unpaid pensions and gratuities when he handed over power on 17 March 2014.
According to the government, Obi’s administration contracted approximately US$123.77 million in external debt across eight separate borrowings. As of 30 June 2026, the outstanding balance of these loans stood at N127.4 billion when calculated at the official exchange rate. Officials noted that the current administration has been making regular monthly service payments running into hundreds of millions of naira on these obligations. The loans were originally tied to projects covering malaria control, erosion management, education, and healthcare.
The statement further calculated that Obi spent the equivalent of about US$4.05 billion during his eight years in office. Converted at today’s official exchange rate, that figure amounts to roughly N5.4 trillion. While acknowledging that no government operates with zero debt and that borrowing can be useful for development, the Anambra government argued that Obi’s recent public comments were “wild and verifiably false.”
Beyond the external loans, the government claimed Obi left verified arrears of salaries, gratuities, and pensions owed to retired teachers and staff of the Water Corporation. It also painted a broader picture of the state of public services at the end of his tenure, alleging non-functional urban and rural water schemes, under-resourced public schools and hospitals, rising insecurity, and widespread poverty. Officials stated that 44 percent of communities in Anambra (78 out of 179) still lacked any public primary school, a gap the present administration is only beginning to close. They added that only about 27 percent of residents used public health facilities because of poor quality and limited functionality—a shortcoming Obi himself had reportedly admitted at a recent NBA conference.
The release comes in the midst of the 2027 election season, after Obi disputed debt figures raised by the state Commissioner for Finance. The Anambra government maintained that once a former governor made such claims on his personal handle, transparency and accountability demanded a factual public response.