Presidency Revives Peter Obi’s Quit-Race Pledge After Anambra Government Rejects His Account of State Finances

The Presidency has revived Peter Obi’s pledge to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race if his account of Anambra State’s finances is disproved, following a fresh challenge from the state government over debts and other liabilities allegedly linked to his administration.

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, raised the issue on Wednesday after the Anambra State Government disputed several claims made by Obi about the financial position of the state when he left office.

Onanuga said Obi had previously claimed that he left Anambra without outstanding debt and had offered to stop campaigning if anyone established otherwise. He subsequently challenged the former governor to honour that commitment following the state government’s latest response.

The dispute centres on the financial records of Obi’s administration and whether outstanding obligations remained when he handed over the state government.

According to the Presidency’s account of the controversy, the Anambra government has raised questions over alleged liabilities involving Water Corporation workers, teachers, pensions and gratuities. Onanuga also accused the former administration of borrowing for what he described as questionable purposes.

The claims have been disputed by Obi, who has maintained that his administration cleared substantial inherited obligations before leaving office.

Obi said his administration paid more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears and left without outstanding salary, pension or gratuity obligations. His position directly contradicts the current Anambra government’s account of the state’s financial position at the time of the transition.

Another major point of disagreement involves an alleged N2.13 billion ecological fund.

Obi said the money had been left untouched in a First Bank account for work relating to the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis. The former governor used the claim as part of his response to allegations that his administration left financial obligations behind.

The Anambra State Government, however, rejected that explanation.

Law Mefor, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, said the account cited by Obi was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.

Mefor said the state government obtained a certified printout of the account and claimed that there had been no N2.13 billion inflow or balance in the account from the time it was opened in 2011 until now.

That claim has become a central point in the increasingly public dispute over the financial record of Obi’s eight-year tenure as Anambra governor.

Obi has challenged anyone able to establish that his account of the state’s finances is inaccurate, saying he would stop campaigning if the contrary could be established.

The Presidency has now seized on that statement, with Onanuga asking whether Obi would follow through on the pledge after the Anambra government’s latest response.

The exchange has brought Obi’s record as a former governor directly into the political debate surrounding the 2027 presidential election. The financial dispute is now being tied to a commitment Obi himself made regarding his continued participation in the presidential race.

The focus therefore extends beyond the competing claims over Anambra’s finances to the political commitment attached to them.

For the Presidency, the latest challenge is straightforward: if Obi’s claims about the state’s financial position are disproved, it wants him to honour the pledge he made regarding his 2027 ambition.

Obi’s response to that challenge, and whether he maintains the conditions attached to his pledge, now form a central part of the unfolding dispute over his record in Anambra.

The controversy has since left the Presidency pressing one specific question: will Peter Obi stand by the 2027 pledge he made if the claims about Anambra’s finances are established to be incorrect?