The Anambra State Government has challenged former governor Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race, accusing him of breaching key campaign promises, including debt and prompt payment of worker salaries.
In a message uploaded on its official X account on Tuesday, the state’s New Media Office asked, “When will Peter Obi quit his presidential campaign?”
The government remembered that Obi had promised to withdraw from the presidential run if it was proven that he left Anambra in debt.
It also noted Obi’s commitment as governor to resign if workers were not paid on schedule.
The state government alleged he had broken both promises.
It said, “He (Obi) vowed to quit the presidential race if proven he left Anambra in debt.
“As governor, he vowed to resign if workers weren’t paid on time. He broke both. He left office in 2014 with heavier arrears.”
The Anambra state government accompanied the post with a letter dated April 25, 2006, and allegedly signed by Chuks Iloegbunam, then Chief of Staff to Obi.
The letter, labeled “GUBERNATORIAL PREROGATIVE,” made a “special appeal” to Obi to settle Anambra State Water Corporation workers’ salary arrears.
It cited three reasons for the appeal, including the corporation’s monthly wage expense of over N15 million and the fact that its employees were last paid in February.
The letter read, “Since it is Your Excellency’s unchanging desire to achieve a better future for our children and children’s children, please, Sir, bear in mind that officials of the Water Corporation also have children who are looking to your compassionate leadership. If the President listens with compassion to your appeals on behalf of the children of Anambra State, I am 200 percent sure that you will hearken to the cries of the children whose parents work for the Water Corporation and end their ordeal. Thank you most sincerely for that.
“The monthly salary of the Water Corporation comes to something around N15 million every month. Because you have a most busy schedule, I appeal to you to please include the Water Corporation in the league of government parastatals that are paid through subventions. In this way, the workers will not come to Your Excellency’s office every month to distract your attention on account of unpaid salaries.”
The letter referenced Obi’s campaign manifesto, which pledged that the governor would resign “if there is any case where workers are not paid as and when due.”
“Your Excellency, Water Corporation workers were last paid in February. Please rectify this anomaly so that you can forge ahead with the good work you are doing,” it concluded.
In a follow-up tweet, the state government stated, “Peter Obi’s former Chief of Staff, Iloegbunam, berated him.”
The current event is part of an ongoing disagreement between the administration of Governor Charles Soludo and Obi over the state’s financial status since the former governor left office in March 2014.
On September 17, the state administration, through Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation Dr. Law Mefor, issued a lengthy statement titled “Gov. Peter Obi and the Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies.”
The government said that Obi left unpaid external loans, as well as salary, pension, and gratuity arrears.
It stated that the outstanding balance on eight external borrowings taken out during Obi’s administration came to N127.4bn as of June 30, 2026, based on the official exchange rate.
Mefor stated that Obi secured $123.77 million in external debt for projects such as malaria control, erosion management, education, and healthcare. The present government keeps servicing these loans, with hundreds of millions of naira deducted each month from the state’s federal allocation.
The commissioner added that Obi left behind verified salary, gratuity, and pension arrears owed to retired teachers and staff of the Water Corporation.
He also rejected Obi’s claim of leaving more than ₦2.13 billion in an ecological fund account at First Bank, UNIZIK branch, Awka, noting that the account in question was an Internally Generated Revenue–Consolidated Revenue Account and had never contained such an amount.
Obi, who is the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, had already dismissed the government’s assertions.
In a statement, he maintained that he left office with no unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities, or obligations to contractors whose jobs had been processed and certified. According to him, his administration settled over ₦35 billion in accumulated gratuities and arrears.
He further pledged to abandon his 2027 presidential campaign if the state government could provide proof that he left debts or owed any contractor.
Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, then called on Obi to make good on his promise and withdraw from the race, stating that the Anambra government had presented him with facts and figures.
Idris Zekeri Jnr, Obi’s media aide, called the Presidency’s involvement that of a “meddlesome interloper” and said a team of former officials who served with Obi was putting together a detailed reply to the substantive issues raised by the Anambra State Government.
The controversy over Anambra State’s financial position when Obi’s tenure ended in 2014 has come up from time to time since the handover to his successor, Willie Obiano, and has intensified anew as the 2027 presidential contest draws nearer.
