The ongoing political war of words between the Anambra State Government under Governor Chukwuma Soludo and former Governor Peter Obi has taken a sharp, documentary turn as the state executive released financial memos detailing the approval of ₦363.38 million in salary arrears owed to former public servants. The disclosure, published online by official state media channels, lays bare an internal memorandum dated May 24, 2025, from former Head of Service Dame Theodora Okwy Igwegbe to Governor Soludo. The document requests the release of ₦363,381,000 as the second tranche of salary back-pay to retired workers, active staff, and next-of-kin of the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation and the Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency (ANSEPA) under an out-of-court settlement signed in February 2024. State handlers accompanied the release with caustic political commentary targeting Obi, explicitly framing the memo as proof that the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate left substantial unpaid liabilities behind when he exited government in March 2014.
The official document release directly challenges the primary narrative that forms the bedrock of Peter Obi’s national political appeal, his reputation as an uncompromisingly prudent administrator who governed Anambra for eight years without incurring debt or leaving outstanding domestic entitlements.
Appearing on Arise News prior to the disclosure, Obi reiterated his longstanding stance that his administration left office owing zero verified claims to contractors, suppliers, civil servants, or pensioners.
He argued that any financial obligations often attached to his tenure were either concessionary multilateral assistance managed through the Federal Government or undrawn credit facilities that could not be categorized as operational debt. Crucially, Obi stressed that his administration did not approach commercial institutions for loans or issue state bonds, maintaining that his handover notes clearly reflected a net positive balance including dedicated foreign exchange savings meant to anchor future development.
The dispute highlights a fundamental clash over accounting methodologies and political definitions of public liabilities. While Obi’s defenders maintain that statutory arrears owed to commercial state agencies or unverified claims fall outside the narrow definition of direct state payroll debts, the Soludo administration insists that state liabilities are cumulative and cannot be erased by administrative definitions. Soludo’s camp argues that contractual back-pay owed to workers of defunct state bodies constitutes real debt that current taxpayers must clear, pointing out that total settlements for these liabilities run into billions of naira. Critics of the current administration, however, contend that Soludo is weaponizing state archives to undermine a political rival ahead of future electoral cycles, noting that Obi handed over power to Chief Willie Obiano, not Soludo, making the timing and targeted nature of these revelations a strategic attempt to puncture Obi’s fiscal reputation ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Adding a potent geopolitical dynamic to the friction, Governor Soludo has openly declared his political alignment with the ruling center, throwing his full weight behind the re-election bid of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Anambra governor has repeatedly defended the President’s controversial macroeconomic policies, arguing that Tinubu’s bold structural reforms and economic policy direction have reversed national decline and placed Nigeria back on the right track toward sustained development and long-term economic progress. By actively backing Tinubu’s mandate and urging progressive forces to rally around the current presidency, Soludo has drawn a clear line in the sand, pitching his economic philosophy against the opposition framework championed by the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Obi, and transforming Anambra’s local accounting dispute into a high-stakes proxy battle for the nation’s political future.
