Anambra Debt: You are not fit for leadership, APC-PCC tells Peter Obi

… Urges NDC presidential candidate to quit the race

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC – PCC) has described the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, as unfit for leadership anywhere.

He said disclosures by the Anambra State Government during its eight-year tenure exposed unpaid workers’ salaries and undisclosed external borrowings behind its carefully cultivated image of fiscal prudence.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the APC Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, Dele Alake, said the response of the Anambra State Government to Obi’s challenge to verify his background has torn to pieces what he described as a well-packaged lie built around the personality of the former governor.

According to Alake, for the past four years, the former governor’s supporters have packaged Obi’s tenure as characterized by exceptional fiscal prudence, including the claim that he would leave Anambra without the burden of debt. Obi himself was presented as a squeaky clean politician.

“But it all emerged as a neatly packaged lie. The facade of lies built around Peter Obi, the NDC presidential candidate, has now been torn to pieces, with Obi’s persona deconstructed following revelations by the Anambra State Government, which responded to Obi’s challenge to verify his background.

“According to the Anambra State Government, the former governor spent about $4.05 billion or 5.4 trillion naira during his eight years in office and took out $123.77 million in external loans.

“The State also disclosed that since Obi left office on March 17, 2014, there were eight different external loans for malaria, erosion control, education and healthcare, and that successive administrations, including that of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, continued to service the debt,” the statement read.

The APC electoral council said the loan is not reckless if used for development, adding that “for a man who prides himself on being austere and has often claimed to have left the state with a clean bill of health, the revelations have confirmed what has long been claimed: Obi is an irredeemable liar, a mediocre governor, unfit for leadership anywhere.

“Even more confusing is that despite these loans, Obi has nothing to show for his administration in Anambra sectors. He has failed to pay the salaries of workers in some ministries. Water Corporation staff were among those who protested over unpaid salaries.”

Alake referred to a memo dated April 25, 2006, in which Chuks Ileogbunam, Obi’s chief of staff, pleaded with the governor to pay the N15 million monthly salary of Water Corporation workers to avoid protests at the governor’s office over unpaid salaries. Obi was then spending his second month in office.

The said memo read: “As it is His Excellency’s immutable desire to achieve a better future for our children and our children’s children, please, Sir, keep in mind that officials of the Water Corporation also have children who look up to your compassionate leadership. The President compassionately listens to your appeals on behalf of the children of Anambra. I am 200% sure that you will hear the cries of the children whose parents work for the Water Corporation and end their ordeal.”

The APC Electoral Council, however, challenged the NDC presidential candidate to leave the race before the 2027 general elections.

“Just as Obi had promised to abandon the presidential race if it was proven that he had left a debt burden on Anambra State, the letter revealed that Obi had similarly promised the people of Anambra during his campaign that he would resign as governor “if there is an instance of workers not being paid as and when due”. He obviously never intended to do so. He only deceived the people into voting for him. When he left office in 2014, he left his successors with heavier arrears to pay.

“We advise Obi to cleanse himself of his lies and seek the forgiveness of Anambra people instead of galloping across platforms, parroting nonsense. What should be even more worrying to Obi followers is Obi’s recent solidarity visit to someone who is facing EFCC trial for unexplained wealth and colossal corruption.

“Indeed, if Peter Obi has any honor, he must immediately resign from the 2027 presidential race in line with his promise to end his race if it is proven that his administration has left liabilities in Anambra,” he said.