Forget Mr. Peter Obi.
Forget Charles Chukwuma Soludo.
Forget Obidients.
Forget political parties for a moment.
Let us use simple arithmetic.
Imagine you are leaving your business for your younger brother to manage.
On the day you leave, the business has N100 million worth of money and investments.
But the business also owes the bank N10 million.
Question: is the business broke?
No. If you wanted to, you could take N10 million from the N100 million, pay every kobo of the debt, and still leave your brother with N90 million.
This example matters because it explains much of the current argument over Peter Obi and the finances of Anambra State.
Peter Obi did not leave Anambra with literally zero debt recorded anywhere. The Debt Management Office records show that as of 31 December 2013, shortly before Obi left office in March 2014, Anambra's external debt was $30,323,574.40. Domestic debt was N3,025,797,046.67. At the exchange rate around that period, that's roughly N4.7 billion external plus N3.03 billion domestic, or about N7.7 to N7.8 billion total.
Keep that number in your head. Approximately N7.8 billion.
Now the other side of the ledger. According to Obi's March 2014 handover report, the state had local investments of N27 billion, foreign currency investments of N26.5 billion, certified state and MDA balances of N28.166 billion, and an FGN-approved refund of N10 billion.
That's N91.666 billion. The handover document then set aside about N5 billion for estimated liabilities, including salaries, pensions, gratuities and certificates for already executed projects, producing the widely quoted N86.666 billion net balance. Part of this has been corroborated directly by people who were there.
Alex Otti, who ran Diamond Bank at the time, has said on record that he personally oversaw part of how the state's funds were invested and confirmed the money was real.
Even subtracting the N7.8 billion DMO debt figure from that N86.67 billion, you are still left with roughly N78.9 billion. That's why "effectively debt-free" holds up in ordinary conversation. It does not mean there was no loan anywhere with Anambra's name on it. It means the state's reported assets far exceeded its recorded debt.
Worth being precise on one thing: the N86.67 billion was never N86.67 billion sitting as cash in one account. It included investments, foreign currency holdings, government balances, and an approved refund still to be collected. That's a fact about the composition of the figure, not a challenge to it, and it matters for the same reason it matters on the debt side: knowing what a number is actually made of changes what you can honestly say about it.
Now to the part that is actually in dispute. The Anambra government has published eight external loan facilities associated with Obi's administration and says their outstanding balance, converted at the official rate, is N127.4 billion as of 30 June 2026. That is over twelve years after Obi left office in March 2014. Those two dates cannot simply be treated as the same moment in time.
I believe that was intentionally done by the Anambra State Government to mislead the public:
But here’s a primary school example. Suppose your father opens a N10 million credit facility with a bank. By the day he hands the business to you, only N2 million has actually been drawn. After he leaves, another N6 million is released under the facility. Twenty years later, is it accurate to say "your father left us N8 million debt"? Not without explaining when the money was actually disbursed.
The government's own figures actually help make this point, if you read them closely. They list the eight facilities as totaling $123.77 million when signed, but they state the outstanding balance on those facilities today is $92.35 million, which is what converts to the N127.4 billion figure. Compare that $92.35 million to the DMO's record of Anambra's entire external debt stock in December 2013: $30.323 million.
That is a real and significant increase, and the honest explanation is straightforward: these are multilateral development loans, several of them tied to projects like malaria control and the Fadama agricultural programme, and such facilities disburse over years as the projects progress.
Money continued to be drawn down after Obi left office, which is exactly why the balance is higher now than it was at handover.
So the debate isn't really about whether these loans existed. It's about when the money was actually taken out.
If we want to know what Obi left, we shouldn't start with Anambra's debt position in 2026. We should ask what Anambra's debt stock was when Obi left in 2014.
The DMO's own December 2013 figures answer that: $30.323 million external, N3.026 billion domestic. Set against the N86.666 billion in reported net assets from the handover report, the reported assets were substantially larger than the recorded debt.
Picture two men. Chinedu owns a house worth N100 million and has N20 million in the bank. He owes N5 million. Emeka has N500,000 in his account and owes N10 million. Both men technically have debt. They are not in the same financial position.
So did Peter Obi leave Anambra with zero loans or zero recorded public debt? No, the DMO records don't support that literal claim. Did he leave a state whose reported assets substantially outweighed its recorded debt at the time of handover? The available figures support that.
Is it accurate to take the 2026 outstanding balance of loans that were signed under Obi, convert it to today's naira, and present it without qualification as the debt he "left" in 2014?
The dates and the government's own disbursement figures say that comparison needs real qualification, since a meaningful share of that balance reflects money drawn down well after he was gone.
The proper questions are simple: how much had actually been disbursed when Obi left, how much was disbursed after, and what assets did the state hold against its liabilities at handover. Answer those with primary documents, and the argument gets a lot less complicated than the shouting online would suggest.
And to the Obidients, when I interviewed Madam Aisha Yesufu, I asked her question about this debt and it was also one of the reasons why I wanted to interview PO.
I got bullied and insulted by some people who felt I didn’t mean well for simply asking that question, but all I wanted was to give the PO team the opportunity to explain this the way I just explained it here so that when people bring it up, there would already be an answer waiting. The same answer I wanted is what everyone is now trying to present online in an argument.
As a podcast host, when I ask questions, it’s not for me. It’s so that an answer can be given for those who may have such questions. I hope Nigerians get to learn this very soon.
-KAA
Host of KaaTruths Podcast
#kaa_truths
