Obi Dismisses Soludo Rift Rumors, Questions Anambra’s $123.77m Debt Figure

 Peter Obi, the former governor of Anambra State, has stepped forward to put an end to rumours of friction between him and the man who now occupies the office, Governor Chukwuma Soludo, declaring that there is no quarrel between them and that he will never again contest for governor, even if the constitution is amended.

Obi spoke on Friday as he responded to a growing dispute over loans worth millions of dollars linked to projects carried out during his eight-year tenure at the helm of the state.

He explained that he had kept silent for several days because he was grieving the death of his elder brother, Chief Okey Ezeibe, but said he could no longer ignore what he called an unnecessary distraction from the genuine challenges confronting Nigerians.

At the heart of the dispute are foreign loans which the present Anambra administration says amount to $123.77 million from the period Obi served as governor.

According to the state, $92.35 million of that sum was still outstanding as of June this year.

Obi rejects the claim completely, insisting that the state government has misrepresented both how the funds were obtained and how the figures were worked out.

Obi maintained that the loans were not facilities he went out to secure on his own.

Rather, he explained, they were World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development programmes put together by the federal government and extended to participating states, Anambra among them.

He accused the state government of lumping together three distinct accounting categories approved amounts, drawn funds and outstanding balances and wrongly pinning the entire figure on him.

Obi also highlighted another inconsistency. When he handed over in March 2014, Anambra's official external debt was about $30 million.

By December of that same year, the figure had climbed to $45.15 million.

Even so, the present administration insists he left behind obligations totalling $123.77 million.

Obi was firm that the figures simply do not add up.

He further emphasised that at no point did he personally go to any lender or financial institution to borrow on the state's behalf.

Abraham Nwankwo, a former director-general of Nigeria's Debt Management Office, had even made him chairman of his send-off ceremony and noted that Obi was the only state governor in a decade who never approached the office seeking loan facilities.

Obi further stated that his government cleared all salaries, gratuities and pensions before leaving office and left no debts owed to verified contractors or suppliers.

He urged governors to stop preventing opposition candidates from campaigning in their states and to allow voters to choose who governs them.