₦airaland Forum

Former Anambra State governor Peter Obi has claimed that he did not leave behind any debt, nor owe any contractor during his time and while he left office in 2014. BUT THE CLAIM IS FALSE.

Our fact check found that his claims have been found to be false and misleading.

In a widely circulated interview with Arise TV in June 2025, former Anambra State governor Peter Obi stated that he left office in March 2014 without owing any contractor, supplier, pensioner, or public servant. He added that he left behind funds sufficient to cover salaries for three months.

“The day I left office, I was not owing one contractor, one supplier who had executed his job… I was not owing gratuity. I was not owing pension. I left salary enough to pay salary for three months.” Obi said.

The statement was widely shared on social media platforms, including X and Facebook, and cited by commentators as proof of Obi’s fiscal prudence. But does this claim hold up to scrutiny?

Background:
Peter Obi served as governor of Anambra State from March 2006 to March 2014. He has consistently emphasized his record of fiscal responsibility, often referencing how he left savings in the state’s coffers and met all financial obligations.

His remarks in the Arise TV interview were intended to reinforce his image as a model of transparency and debt-free governance.
However, a fact check analysis reveals that this specific claim is misleading when compared to available financial records.

What Official Records Show
According to the Debt Figures from the Debt Management Office (DMO), the most authoritative data on subnational debt in Nigeria, Anambra State owed an External Debt of (as of December 31, 2013): $30,323,574.40, while the state Domestic Debt (as of December 31, 2013) stood at, ₦3,025,797,046.67, this record shows Peter Obi was still in office as at the time frame.

The data above also reflect the debt position of Anambra State less than three months before Obi left office on March 17, 2014. The DMO’s reports are not self-declared by states, but are centrally verified, lending them significant credibility.
Archived source: DMO Subnational Debt Profile – 2013.

Budgetary & Fiscal Reports from Anambra State
Historical budget performance documents for Anambra State also indicate the presence of debt obligations, both in the form of federal-approved loans and internally generated debts.

While Peter Obi may have ensured prompt salary payments and completed projects, these reports show ongoing liabilities being managed by the state government under his tenure.
Source: Anambra State Fiscal Strategy Documents (2013–2014)

Interpreting the Claim – Semantic or Factual?
Peter Obi’s claim may hinge on a technical distinction, Contractual Liabilities: These include unpaid invoices, contractor arrears, or pension backlogs.

Public Debt: This includes formal obligations like bonds, credit lines, and bilateral/multilateral loans.

Obi may be asserting that no unpaid claims were left by contractors or civil servants a point not directly contradicted by DMO records, which track formal state liabilities, not informal arrears.

However, his absolute claim that he was “not owing anybody” and that “you can call the person” does not acknowledge this nuance. In fact, his statement explicitly rules out all forms of debt, which includes those captured in DMO records.

Verdict: MISLEADING
While Peter Obi may have cleared salary payments and settled contractor fees, his sweeping claim that he left Anambra State without owing “anybody” is contradicted by verified data from Nigeria’s Debt Management Office.

The state carried both domestic and external debt at the time of his departure. A more accurate statement would have acknowledged the distinction between operational liabilities and formal debt obligations.

Sources:
Nigeria Debt Management Office (DMO) – Subnational Debt Profile, 2013
Anambra State Budget & Fiscal Performance Reports (2013–2014)
Arise TV Interview, June 2025
Archived DMO Data – External Debt (2013)
Archived State Government Financial Reports (2013)

Nlfpmod

Busted: Peter Obi Actually Left More Debt For Anambra Than Any Governor Before Him!

Peter Obi's claim during a recent interview that he left $150 million and ₦36 billion in the coffers of Anambra State is dishonest, fallacious, misleading and typical Obi doublespeak.

The truth is that Peter Obi is a manipulator and economic terrorist who knew what he was doing when he made that inaccurate statement.

Please fact-check me: Peter Obi actually left a debt of ₦127 billion that was due IMMEDIATELY after his successor, Governor Willie Obiano, took office. This debt mainly consisted of unpaid monies owed to contractors engaged by the Peter Obi administration.

More of the debt came from approvals Peter Obi made as he was about to leave office. He deliberately timed these contract approvals to be due when he handed over to Mr. Obiano, so he could claim that he left money and Governor Obiano squandered it.

In his last days in office, Mr. Obi was accused by his successor of employing thousands of new staff for the Anambra State Government at the last minute, without making provision for their salaries. When Mr. Obiano took over, these workers' wages became due.

If you take into account the value of the Naira in 2014, when Peter Obi handed over to Governor Willie Obiano, which was approximately ₦150 to $1, the ₦127 billion debt that Mr. Peter Obi left behind was worth around $847 million, far outstripping the so-called money he claimed to have left behind.

Also, the money Mr. Obi claimed to have left behind was not all in cash. Much of it was in supposed assets, which were overvalued by Mr. Peter Obi. When the new Obiano government surveyed the quantity, it found it to be grossly exaggerated, with some even being liabilities.

For example, Peter Obi invested $12,616,356.43 of Anambra State funds in Intafact Beverages Limited. He claimed that this was part of the assets he left behind. But in actual fact, that brewery became a loss-making business, and the shares held by the Anambra State Government depreciated to about $5.4 million.

Additionally, much of the actual cash Peter Obi left behind was in Fidelity Bank, where he was one of the largest shareholders and a former Chairman.

Peter Obi placed an amount equivalent to $20 million in a Fidelity Bank account with account number 5030047097. This money was earning interest for Fidelity Bank, interest that was partly going into his personal pocket. If I am lying, let Peter Obi sue me. I have all the facts.

Considering this, Peter Obi's claim that he left money behind for the Anambra State Government is not only false but also almost criminal when you consider that from 1999 to 2023, Peter Obi was the ONLY Anambra State Governor under whom poverty increased.

Please fact-check me: All the other Governors before him and the Governor immediately after him reduced poverty. But Peter Obi increased poverty in Anambra from 41.4% to 53.7%, while purporting to leave money in a bank where he held significant shares.

It is believed that the reason Peter Obi did not build a single nursery, primary, or secondary school and university (which is partly responsible for why poverty increased under his watch) is because he wanted Anambra State Government funds to sit in Fidelity Bank, rather than to be used for poverty reduction.

Reno Omokri

Slytiger:
https://guardian.ng/news/fact-check-claim-that-peter-obi-left-no-debt-in-anambra-is-false/

Calbarian:
Even this your report on its own is misleading. On the contrary, he challenged the owed parties to come out to refute his claim which none has done so till now.

Slytiger:
https://guardian.ng/news/fact-check-claim-that-peter-obi-left-no-debt-in-anambra-is-false/

helinues:
If Peter Obi couldn't generate ordinary N5bn as IGR for 8 years yet claiming of not borrowing at all, where did he get the money he saved from?

Remember the doctors and nurses went on strike for good 13 months for poor pay

OKOATA:
If Obi left any debt in whichever way you will paint him, atleast his touching lives, you will see him donating one thing or the other. It's either in financial value or material values. He goes to schools, churches, hospitals and the likes blessing people everywhere. That alone is greater than what other politicians can't do. Ordinary borehole your politicians can't do but it's Obi that's touching lives everywhere is the one you focus on day Nd night. It shows that this Obi guy actually won the election cos even Atiku that came 3rd isn't as popular as this.

Freetech:
That man with 2 sides of his mouth

A man claiming what he never did as governor

Imagine a man who claimed education isn't for the poor and made his state poverty capital of the world

A man who invested $12mill state money in his bank for interest while workers were on strike for unpaid salary

sirfemoz:
Imagine your line of argument. If you have stayed in Anambra State, or visited Anambra State before Peter Obi became governor, yor will really appreciate administration. Read Obi's manifesto and check if he delivered on what he promised to do.

goslowgoslow:
Instead of you to talk about what he did in Anambara as a whole you are talking about few people that he helped.

adioolayi:
Na wa for this man oo...

All lies now being debunked steadily..

Jake he focus on charities he dey do and leave interview space for now...

Freetech:
That man with 2 sides of his mouth

A man claiming what he never did as governor

Imagine a man who claimed education isn't for the poor and made his state poverty capital of the world

A man who invested $12mill state money in his bank for interest while workers were on strike for unpaid salary

idrismodel:
If you still need your brain for future transactions, don't follow or think like Reno Omokri.

Peter Obi was clear.

He left huge amount in savings doesn't means he is not owing any other dept that are statutory

He invested Anambra money in a manufacturing company just like other saner countries in the world does

OKOATA:
Only debunked in your camp. You and your goons should stick to believing una own lies. Just posting rubbish early in the morning with no proof.