The endure appears not to have been heard of the political battle between Anambra Situation Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo and one of his predecessors, Mr Peter Obi. David-Chyddy Eleke reports.
“No condition government is forced to take any IDA-World Bank loan: you must communicate draw and sign for the loan prior to you can availability it. Our present government rejected a equivalent World Bank loan — NG-CARES 1 — principally because the terms were considered too top-tier due to change rate risks. It was a pitiable sight seeing our respected former governor showing a lack of understanding and nearly insinuating that he did not learn that he borrowed even once signing for the loan. But if forthcoming IDA-World Bank loans are on favourable terms, we would inspect them.
Obi said: “Persons consider I have difficulty using Soludo, but they do not learn that our families are extremely stop. Speaking at the Nigerian Guild of Editors’ up-to-date conference, the Nigerian Democratic Congress presidential candidate although buttressing his collaboration together with the Soludos, declared that he and his wife were the godparents of their children. Society do not be aware of that I and my wife are godparents of Soludo’s children.”
Obi had consistently insisted that there was no concern amid him and Soludo.
For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Margaret Obi, wife of Mr. Nonye Soludo. Obi nor Professor Soludo has served as a godparent to the other’s children.”
Peter Obi, is the baptismal godmother to one of Professor Chukwuma Soludo’s daughters.
In a press matter by her media aide, Mr Dan Ezeigwe, Mrs Soludo stated that: “Following the widespread circulation of the video, we have received numerous calls and enquiries seeking clarification on the state. We hereby condition obviously that the allege, as presented, is invalid. Neither Mr. Nonye Soludo, Opening Lady of Anambra Condition, is the confirmation godmother to Peter Obi’s daughter; Mrs. The facts concerning the godparent tie betwixt the two families are as follows; Dr. Peter Obi is not a godfather to any of the children of Professor Chukwuma and Dr.
This is coming as the families of both men have now been smuggled into the battle, showing an interwoven family ties that were hitherto covered from the society.
Some well meaning indigenes of Anambra Status are of the position that if elders in the declare fail to wade into the battle in the middle of the governor of Anambra Status, Prof Chukwuma Soludo and the presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Peter Obi, the crisis betwixt them may degenerate to a entire blown battle.
In the assert, Anambra Condition Commissioner for Statistics, Dr Law Mefor, expressed surprise why Obi and his supporters were attacking Soludo once the governor merely heeded a detail by Obi for anyone to demonstrate proof that he left any debt when he left office. It insisted that Obi’s saintly posturing was all media packaging and nothing extra, although acknowledging that such media packaging has genuinely worked for him, as numerous individuals are swayed concerning his personality.
It too insisted that the status government would have allowed Obi’s lies to slide if he didn’t check them to present proof of his borrowing or owing anyone as at March 17, 2014 when he left office.
As the controversy continues to rage, several Anambra citizens have called for a audience discuss amid Obi and Soludo to ascertain the truth of the debt profile mentioned, but for humans like Uche Nworah, a community affairs commentator, there was demand for elders to intervene in the society spat by both men, to retain Anambra continued embarrassment.
She insisted that neither Soludo nor Obi is godfather of each other’s sons at baptism and that the truth should stay so.
Insisting on environment the records straight, Soludo’s wife in another release quoting the canon laws of the Catholic Church stressed that sponsorship at baptism was an confidential thing that had nothing to do alongside spouses.
Supporters of Obi had as the concern was made community been on the neck of the governor and his wife, insisting that there was nothing unlike betwixt Obi claiming to be the godparents of Soludo’s children, so enduring as they have admitted that his wife was truly the support of one of Soludo’s daughters.
“The escalating war of words amid the Anambra Declare Government and former Governor of Anambra Status, Mr. It has become increasingly embarrassing to read the debt-linked claims, counterclaims and other comments emanating from the camps of the condition government and that of the NDC presidential candidate.
It is getting out of hand. Peter Obi, has reached a thought where one begins to wonder: Are there no additional leaders in Igboland who can phase in and de-escalate the circumstance?
Soludo’s wife did not take this kindly as she entered the fray, aiming to acceptable the impression created by Obi. Even though a quiet and humble Primary Lady, she felt there was demand to right the log, lest it stuck.
In this case, you exaggerated the advantage side but concealed and lied regarding the liabilities.” But did it, and does it build any sense at all? No subject how huge the assets or how miniscule the liabilities, you are obliged to uncover both sides. The matter was under no circumstances whether the assets you left behind were greater than sufficient to repay the debt. It is Accountancy 101. Yet, Peter Obi, every accounting balance sheet has sections on Assets and Liabilities. But your initial experience was that you at no time left any debt. That is what you are saying now. It said: “But let’s interrogate your jaundiced logic.
The declare government described it as jaundiced logic for Obi to borrow and hold in the bank, hoping to reap resonate to, whilst multiple condition projects were waiting to be tackled. Yes, we don’t dispute that you saved $150 million, and if it had not been spent by your rapid successor, it would have been earning subject. A lot of may discuss that the so-called savings were a default environment for a government bereft of any enduring-term transformational agenda.
The records reveal that he owed over 700 personnel of the Anambra Situation Water Corporation their salaries, pensions and gratuities. No material how you disingenuously invent the “account net-offs”, the facts won’t go away. Don’t adjust the matter. Peter Obi did not just owe one professional, he owed over 700 workers and thousands of pensioners.
“The reality again is that Peter Obi borrowed and left a debt of over US$123 million contrary to all his lies on it for 13 years, and the contemporary government is paying billions of Naira in repayment. An Arbitration Panel in 2009 as well as the Countrywide Industrial Court judgment of 2019 confirmed that the Status Government owed the workers.”
“We have definitively and conclusively provided evidence that Peter Obi’s administration signed eight loans from the IDA-World Bank over his eight-year tenure, totalling US$123,771,179.30, and even disbursed some of it in advance of leaving office but deceptively concealed these from his handover notes. We have provided the dates and the amounts that his administration signed the loans, and this can be verified from the Debt Direction Office (DMO), Abuja. As of 30th June, 2026, the DMO describe showed the outstanding balance of those same eight loans was $92.35 million, equivalent to N127.37 billion, which organized administrations, including the newest one, have continued to facility by route of monthly FAAC deductions.
He is the solely subsequent big thing once God. And indeed, to his credit, the media packaging has worked.
“There is this dangerous trend in our community discourse whereby there are two sets of standards: one for everyone else and another for Peter Obi. This is one former governor of Anambra who is not on log to have ever complimented any of his predecessors or successors in office. Simply Peter Obi has the right to lie on and against any and everyone, and if you dare to disclose his lies, you must be the “sinner”, the “saboteur”, etc.
For us, it is solely a matter of log. Because Mr. Obi himself initiated this self-imposed counter — daring anyone to prove that he left debts — it is merely a concern of integrity and character that he owns up to the outcome. You cannot attack opening and then conclude up as the victim at the same time.
Portion of the detailed copy read: “We watched the interview by Mr. Peter Obi, on Arise TV on 24th September, 2026, where he tried to equivocate regarding the settled concern of his legacy of debts in Anambra, alongside intent to obfuscate and change the area.
What started as a compact address where Obi insisted that he left Anambra Situation debt-free and moreover a savings of N75billion, including a contact for anyone who can to prove the reality inaccurate had made the status governor, Soludo to dig by manner of the files of the condition and introduce what he stated were liabilities left by Obi, which included unpaid debts and outstanding salaries, pension and gratuity. Obi had in his reaction stuck to his gun that he owed no one earlier than leaving, a reaction that prompted greater clarification by the Soludo administration using the commissioner for facts, Dr Law Mefor.
For his supporters, Peter Obi has the right to take who to endorse and campaign for, even when he was not on the ballot, but for our governor to dare to exercise the same right and endorse anyone else but Peter Obi, he must be crucified. Even till date, that same investment of $14 million is still worth reduced than $3 million. When our governor exposed the lie in an interview in November 2022 that the investment was worth “upcoming to nothing”, hell was let loose.
“In 2022, when this administration assumed office, he as usual publicly lied that his investment of around $14 million in the brewery in which he has consideration was worth “over $100 million”.
So, what is the topic again?
“Till date, neither Peter Obi nor anyone else has disputed these facts at the DMO. We do not desire to observation on his laughable argument: “I did not go to the World Bank or DMO to borrow the finance”. Numerous Ndi Anambra were actually scandalized to see their former governor, whose government signed Subsidiary Loan Agreements (SLAs), but who did not seem to be aware of the difference betwixt an IDA-World Bank loan, which the Anambra Condition Government is still paying billions to repay and offering, and grants.
All that is required is for you to sign the loan agreements and your government did. Peter Obi, you do not have to “go to a bank or DMO” in advance of your borrowing can be perfected.
Alongside respect to the multilateral funding inaccurately described as “debt owed by Peter Obi” in Anambra Situation, I wish to condition unequivocally that as Governor of Anambra Situation, I did not approach any financial institution to borrow money or concern a bond on behalf of the condition. Obi in his critique to Soludo said: “I have remained silent over the past few days as I have been grieving the loss of my remarkably dear elder brother and friend, Leader Okey Ezeibe. Yet, the time has come for me to talk regarding some of the matters that have occupied audience discussion in original days. Indeed, at his farewell ceremony, the then Manager-Overall of the DMO, Abraham Nwankwo, appointed me chairman and declared that, during his 10 years in office, I was the just situation governor who had not approached him for a loan facility.”
Meanwhile, in the opinion of Obi, the matter of borrowing and leaving debt in Anambra was extra key matter to participate in and not godparentship.
“There are bigger challenges confronting Anambra Situation, the South-East and Nigeria. The elders should urgently intervene, not to silence lawful reason or scrutiny, but to stimulate civility, restraint and reconciliation. For the sake of Anambra Condition and the wider Igbo nation, the falcon must once again hear the falconer,” Nworah stated.
