Why Peter Obi doesn’t deserve praise despite saving $150m – Anambra govt

The Anambra State Government has said the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, does not deserve praise despite saving $150 million in the state’s treasury before exiting office as governor in 2014.

The Commissioner for Information in the state, Law Mefor, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday in response to Mr Obi’s claim of saving over $150 million during his recent interview on Arise News.

Mr Obi served as governor of Anambra State from 2006 to 2014.

In the Saturday statement, Mr Mefor said although the state government was not disputing Mr Obi’s $150 million savings, the former governor showed “an uncomfortable lack of understanding of the purpose of government.”

The information commissioner argued that Mr Obi ought not to have saved funds when there were developmental projects his administration should have done with the funds to improve lives of the people of the state.

“(The) government exists to improve the security and welfare of the people, and not to save money and earn interest.

“It will be an irresponsible and incompetent government that will be taxing even poor market women and saving the same in banks to earn interest, including in a bank in which the governor has interest, while millions of its people are falling into poverty and insecurity,” he said.

He also claimed that it did not make any “social or economic sense” for Mr Obi’s administration to have collected taxes from “impoverished residents” and saved same in bank accounts for interests while millions of residents were in “dire poverty with rising insecurity, decayed infrastructure, literally dead public health and public educational systems.”

The official further claimed that, under Mr Obi, Anambra State had “no pipe-borne water, no power plant, no airport, no government house/lodge, with over 900 active gully erosion sites.”

He said: “One argument is that for an underdeveloped society such as ours, a cleverly targeted investment of the so-called ‘savings’ in human capital and infrastructure that ratchets productivity has much higher social and economic rates of return than the miniscule financial returns – ‘interest income’ – thrown up by Obi during his interview.”

Mr Mefor argued that no other governor saved such an amount of money because no leader in “his right senses” would do so when faced with “humongous challenges” which Mr Obi ought to have solved with the funds.

He further contended making such savings in the midst of “acute misery” might “garner transient emotional applause” but it was “certainly an unfortunate economic argument.”

The commissioner equally claimed that Mr Obi, in the interview, blamed his successor Mr Obiano for spending the funds “instead of leaving them to earn bank interest.”

“Well, his successor spent the money and millions of people that his (Obi’s) government threw into poverty were pulled out of poverty and insecurity significantly improved until the ‘unknown gunmen’ unleashed terror in the South-east from 2021,” he said, adding that Mr Obiano committed the saved funds into building of airport and other projects.

But PREMIUM TIMES review of the interview showed that Mr Obi did not specifically say Mr Obiano spent the funds.

“If they (successive administrations) just kept that money ($150m) that I left and was using the income to pay the loan, they would have finished paying it (the alleged debt) now with the capital, $150 million still remaining, and still giving Anambra State $10 million annually,” Mr Obi had said in the interview.

Insistence of $123.7 million debt

Mr Mefor insisted that despite Mr Obi’s denial, his administration took eight external loans between 2007 and 2013, amounting to $123.7 million with $92.35 million remaining outstanding as of 30 June 2026.

The commissioner also disputed details of financial statements in Mr Obi’s handover letter although the former governor handed it over to the previous administration.

The official claimed that while the asset part of the financial statement in the handover letter presented funds for incoming administrations included valuations for abandoned and uncompleted projects, it deceptively hid the liabilities.

“Curiously, the Handover Note never mentioned that his government had awarded and signed valid contracts for 101 roads, totalling 779 kilometres and outstanding liabilities on them of N127 billion as at that date,” he said.

He further contended that although the asset side included N10 billion reportedly for “approved refund” by the federal government which was stated as part of the “net balance,” the money “was not received before he (Mr Obi) left office and no one is sure that the ‘approved refund’ ever came.”

“The same bogus net balances included balances in MDAs’ accounts – largely monies that were already expended from the consolidated revenue fund or not available for spending,” he said.

The N2.1 billion ecological funds debate

Mr Mefor again challenged Mr Obi on his claim of leaving N2.13 billion Ecological Funds in the state’s treasury, asking the former governor to provide details on where the funds were lodged.

Mr Obi had said his administration received the ecological funds from the federal government about three months before he left office.

He had claimed that the funds, which were for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis, were kept in the First Bank account number:2018779464 for the then-incoming government of Mr Obiano.

But Mr Mefor stressed that the account he mentioned with First Bank was not an ecological funds account but an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) account.

He added that the account does not also contain the N2.13 billion either as inflow or existing balance at any time within its active lifespan.

“This is in line with the bank statement we obtained from the bank,” he said, adding that the state government was still interested in knowing the whereabouts of the funds.

The commissioner said that the bank, in its letter of 16 September 2026, confirmed that the balance on that IGR account, as of 17 March 2014 when Mr Obi left office, “was not close to N2 billion.”

“Since the money is not in the First Bank account as claimed, where is it? Or is the money actually missing? This question remains unanswered,” he stated.

READ ALSO: What records show about Anambra debt under Peter Obi, amid govt’s $123.7m claim

Background

The state of Anambra’s finances has long been a subject of debate, but the issue resurfaced recently when the Commissioner for Finance in the state, Izuchukwu Okafor, claimed that Governor Soludo’s administration was still repaying loans and other debts incurred by Mr Obi and other past governors of the state.

Responding to the claim in a now-viral clip, Mr Obi said he was not owing any debt in Anambra when he left office as governor of the state.

The former governor subsequently reiterated that he did not incur any debt as governor but rather saved over N75 billion in the state’s account.

In response, the Anambra government released loan records arguing that Mr Obi’s administration took eight external loans worth $123.7 million, with $92.35 million outstanding.

But Mr Obi countered the government claims and argued that even if the $123.7 million debt claims were true, his $150 million savings and the $10 million income the savings were generating annually for the state was enough to pay off the alleged debts.