The Anambra State government has challenged former governor and 2027 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to quit the presidential race if it is established that he left financial liabilities behind after leaving office.
The state government raised the issue in a post on its verified X account on Tuesday, accusing Obi of contradicting his past commitments on workers’ salaries and the state’s finances.
The development comes amid a renewed dispute between Obi and the Anambra government over whether his administration left behind outstanding debts, salary arrears, pensions and gratuities when he left office in March 2014.
The state government has maintained that some liabilities dating back to the Obi administration remain unresolved, while Obi has rejected the allegations and challenged the government to produce evidence showing that he left the state owing salaries, pensions, gratuities or other obligations.
The Anambra government’s latest argument also centres on a 2006 memo written by Chuks Ileogbunam, who was then Obi’s Chief of Staff, concerning unpaid salaries of workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation.
The document, dated April 25, 2006, was addressed to Obi less than two months into his first tenure and appealed to him to intervene in the salary crisis affecting Water Corporation workers.
In the memo titled “Gubernatorial Prerogative,” Ileogbunam appealed to Obi to use his office to resolve the workers’ salary arrears.
According to the document, the Water Corporation’s monthly wage bill was approximately N15 million, and the Chief of Staff urged Obi to place the corporation among government parastatals funded through subventions so that its workers would not have to repeatedly visit the Governor’s Office over unpaid salaries.
The memo also referred to Obi’s campaign promise concerning the payment of workers’ salaries.
Ileogbunam wrote that Obi’s campaign manifesto had pledged that the governor would resign if there was any case in which workers were not paid as and when due.
The memo stated that Water Corporation workers had last received their salaries in February and appealed to Obi to rectify the situation.
The Chief of Staff wrote:“Fundamentally, your campaign manifesto pledges that Your Excellency will resign if there is any case where workers are not paid as at when due. Your Excellency, Water Corporation workers were last paid in February.”
He further appealed to Obi to use his “gubernatorial prerogative” to end the salary crisis, describing him as a compassionate leader.
The document has now been cited by the Anambra government as part of the argument that salary arrears existed during Obi’s administration.
Recent reports quoting the state government said arrears involving workers of the defunct Water Corporation persisted during Obi’s tenure and later became the subject of court proceedings. The state government said the current administration had negotiated a settlement and paid the first two instalments of a three-installment agreement.
The state government has also disputed Obi’s assertion that he left Anambra without outstanding financial obligations.
According to the government, records showed that eight external borrowings contracted during Obi’s administration remained outstanding after he left office on March 17, 2014.
The government, citing Debt Management Office figures, said the outstanding balance of the loans attributed to the Obi administration stood at about N127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, based on the official exchange rate.
The state government has argued, however, that its position is not that borrowing is inherently wrong, but that Obi’s claim that he left Anambra without a debt burden should be examined against the available records.
It has also stated that Obi did not completely clear verified salary, pension and gratuity arrears inherited from previous administrations.
Commissioner for Information and Culture, Law Mefor, said the present administration had cleared about N22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears owed to retired state and local government employees and teachers, while some legacy liabilities remained.
Mefor specifically cited the Water Corporation salary arrears and claimed that the Obi administration had also verified and certified 16 months of salary arrears owed to primary school teachers under the local government system but paid only five months.
Obi, however, has disputed the government’s account, maintaining that his administration cleared more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or debts to contractors for duly executed and certified projects.
The former governor has also challenged the Anambra government to prove its allegations, saying he would stop campaigning if it could establish that he left the state with such liabilities.
The controversy has subsequently widened into a political confrontation over Obi’s 2027 presidential ambition.