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The Anambra State Government has renewed its challenge to former Governor Peter Obi over his suitability to pursue his 2027 presidential bid, accusing him of failing to deliver on past promises on workers’ salaries and the state’s debt profile.
The latest exchange was prompted by a document released by the state government, which it said showed that salary arrears occurred during Obi’s tenure as governor.
In a post on X’s official account on Tuesday, the state’s New Media Office posed the question, “When will Peter Obi quit the presidential campaign?”
The government recalled two commitments attributed to Obi: that he would withdraw from the presidential race if it was discovered that he left Anambra deep in debt, and that he would resign as governor if workers’ salaries were not paid when due.
The state government accused Obi of failing to fulfill both commitments.
It stated, “He (Obi) vowed to withdraw from the presidential race if proven to have left Anambra in debt.
“As governor, he vowed to resign if workers were not paid on time. He broke both. He left office in 2014 with even bigger arrears.”
To support its claims regarding salary arrears, the government released a letter dated April 25, 2006, which it said was signed by Chuks Iloegbunam, then Obi’s Chief of Staff.
The authenticity of the document could not immediately be determined independently.
The letter, entitled “GOVERNATORIAL PREROGATIVE,” contained what was described as a “special request” to Obi to clear the salary arrears of workers at the Anambra State Water Company.
Among the issues raised were the company’s monthly salary bill which amounted to about N15 million and the fact that its workers last received their salaries in February.
The letter implored the governor to intervene, stating, “Because of His Majesty’s unwavering desire to achieve a better future for our children, please, Sir, remember that the officials of the Water Company also have children who look to you for your loving leadership. If the President listens to your compassionate plea on behalf of the children of Anambra State, I am 200 percent sure that you will listen to the cries of the children whose parents work for the Water Company and end their ordeal. Thank you very much for that.
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“The monthly salary of the Water Company is about N15 million every month. Since you have the busiest schedule, I urge you to include the Water Company in the group of Government parastatals paid through subsidies. This way, workers will not come to His Majesty’s office every month to distract you because of unpaid salaries.”
The document also refers directly to the commitment contained in Obi’s campaign manifesto regarding workers’ salaries.
The statement cited a manifesto promising that the governor would resign “if there are cases where workers are not paid properly.”
The letter ends with a further plea to the governor: “Your Excellency, Water Company workers were last paid in February. Please correct this anomaly so you can continue the good work you do.”
However, the date of the letter is important in the dispute. Obi had only been inaugurated as governor about five weeks earlier, on March 17 2006.
Therefore, the arrears mentioned in the letter may be a legacy of the previous administration and not accumulated during its tenure.
But the state government followed up the publication with another post, which stated, “Peter Obi’s former Chief of Staff, Iloegbunam berated him.”
This latest development is part of a wider dispute between the Soludo and Obi administrations over Anambra’s financial position at the end of his term in March 2014.
On September 17, the state government, through the Commissioner for Information and Values Reorientation, Dr Law Mefor, issued a detailed statement entitled “Governor Peter Obi and Public Debt Records in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies.”
The government accused Obi of abandoning foreign debt as well as salary, pension and gratuity obligations.
According to the statement, the balance of eight foreign loans contracted during the Obi administration reached N127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, based on the prevailing official exchange rate.
Mefor further claimed that Obi’s administration contracted $123.77 million in external loans for projects covering areas such as malaria control, erosion management, education and healthcare.
He said the loans were still being serviced by the state government, with hundreds of millions of naira reportedly deducted every month from Anambra’s federal allocation.
The commissioner also alleged that verified arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities involving retired teachers and Water Company workers had been abandoned at the end of Obi’s tenure.
He refuted Obi’s claim that his administration left over ₦2.13 billion in the ecological fund account at First Bank, UNIZIK branch, Awka, arguing that the account was actually an Internally Generated Income Consolidated Revenue Account and never contained the claimed amount.
Obi, who is the presidential candidate of the Democratic Congress of Nigeria, rejected the state government’s allegations.
The former governor stated that he left office without salary, pension, tips or any outstanding obligations to contractors whose projects had been processed and certified.
He also said his government had paid off more than ₦35 billion in tip and inheritance arrears.
Obi then challenged the Anambra State Government to provide evidence to support his claims, saying that he would abandon his presidential campaign in 2027 if it was proven that he had left behind debts or was in debt to any contractor.
This issue then received a response from President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who challenged Obi to keep his promise and withdraw from the presidential nomination.
However, Obi’s media aide, Idris Zekeri Jr, criticized the intervention, describing the Presidency as a “meddling interloper” and said that a group of former officials who served under Obi were preparing a comprehensive response to the allegations raised by the state government.
Disagreements over Anambra’s finances at the end of the Obi administration have resurfaced several times since the transition to the Willie Obiano administration in 2014 and have now become part of the wider political dispute surrounding the 2027 presidential election.
