By Vincent Ujumadu
The Anambra State Government has disputed claims that the administration of former Governor Peter Obi left the state without outstanding liabilities at the end of his tenure.
The government said Obi’s administration left outstanding loans as well as arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities inherited by subsequent administrations.
In a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Dr Law Mefor, the government said the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo had cleared about N22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears owed to retired state and local government employees and teachers.
Mefor said the government would not join the debate over which administrations paid particular arrears, but maintained that some legacy liabilities dating back to previous administrations remained outstanding.
He cited salary arrears owed to workers of the defunct Water Corporation, which he said persisted throughout Obi’s tenure.
The commissioner also said there were outstanding salary, pension and gratuity arrears owed to primary school teachers under the local government system dating back to the administration of the late Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
According to Mefor, the present administration was recently informed that the Obi administration had verified and certified 16 months of salary arrears and agreed to pay them in tranches.
“We have been informed that the government of HE Peter Obi verified and certified the debt of 16 months of salary arrears and agreed to pay in tranches.
“It only paid five months and no more until today. This administration has set up a committee headed by the Head of Service to finalise a new verification for us to pay,” he said.
Mefor further cited the latest report of the Debt Management Office (DMO), saying the total balance of loans attributed to the Obi administration stood at N127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, based on the official exchange rate.
He added: “Evidently, HE Peter Obi borrowed for malaria, erosion control, education, healthcare, etc. So far, this government pays hundreds of millions of Naira every month to service these debts and we are not complaining. It is good for Anambra once we can show the impacts.
“Let’s be clear: hardly any government in the world has zero debt stock. The issue is not whether or not borrowing is good: no business or government can scale significantly without some debt.
“We are convinced that many Ndi Anambra would not have minded if HE Peter Obi had borrowed to fix public schools and hospitals, water schemes, infrastructure, or even to reduce poverty and insecurity.
“Debt, especially for bankable projects and human capital development, is justifiable. So, HE Peter Obi should stop being irked as if all debt is bad”.
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