Obi counters Soludo’s $123.7m loan claim says facilities were federal, World Bank funds

By Goodness Ndukuba, Awka

Peter Obi, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate, has disputed claims by the Anambra State Government that his administration incurred $123.7 million in external loans, saying he left the state with more than $150 million in savings when he left office in 2014.

Obi, who governed Anambra State from 2006 to 2014, made the clarification on Thursday night while appearing on Arise News’ Prime Time.

The dispute follows the release of loan records by the administration of Governor Charles Soludo, which said Obi’s government obtained eight external loans between 2007 and 2013 totalling $123.7 million.

According to the state government, $92.35 million remains outstanding.

Swiftly, Obi said he did not obtain any loan from a financial institution during his eight years as governor.

“Let me state categorically again. I, Mr Peter Obi, did not approach any financial institution to borrow money or issue bonds on behalf of the Anambra State in the eight years I was in government,” he said.

He described the classification of the facilities as loans incurred by his administration as “a wrong public accounting.”

According to him, the facilities were concessionary development support provided by the Federal Government and the World Bank and made available to eligible states for specific projects.

“First is that those were concessionary development support obtained by the federal government of Nigeria. Call it on-lend to the state governments that are qualified for certain projects,” he said.

“These are concessionary facilities that are payable over a period of 25 to 35 years, with either no or small interest.”

Obi said Anambra, Ekiti and Bauchi were selected for some of the programmes because of their performance in education at the time.

He also argued that a facility approved for a government could not be treated as a debt of the administration if the funds had not been drawn down.

“Even if I had gone to a bank and borrowed money, but I did not spend the money, you cannot call it debt I left,” he said.

“If I go to a bank and say ‘give me a loan of N10 billion’ and I only drew down N500 million, you cannot say I’m owing N10 billion because you know the amount.”

He specifically cited the State Education Programme Investment Project, saying substantial drawdowns occurred after he had left office.

Obi further cited the former Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Abraham Nwankwo, as having publicly acknowledged that he was the only governor who did not visit the DMO to obtain approval to borrow money.

Obi added that he left more than $150 million in savings invested in bonds and other instruments for the state government.

He said the investments were generating more than $10 million in annual income for Anambra.

“At the time I left office, the total component of my savings invested in various bonds was over $150 million, which gives Anambra State guaranteed income of about $10 million yearly,” he said.

He argued that if the funds had remained invested, the returns alone would have been sufficient to service the alleged debt while preserving the principal.

Mr Obi estimated that the savings could have grown to about $335 million if they had remained untouched.

He also said he left office without outstanding salaries, pensions or gratuities owed by the state government.

“On the day I left office, the government of Anambra State, which I served, was not owing any salary, gratuity or pension to those scheduled to be paid by the state government,” he said.

He added that the government did not owe contractors or suppliers whose work had been completed, verified and certified.

Obi also addressed claims that workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation were owed during his administration. He said the corporation was an agency of government but was not included in the state government’s payroll.

Asked by the programme’s anchor, Charles Aniogolu, whether he had documents to support his claims, Obi said he provided a copy of his 2014 handover note.

He said the document contained details of the state’s financial position when he left office, including information on foreign currency assets, banks and bonds.

“I backed all the foreign currency components with the statements because that’s the area of dispute,” he said.

Obi urged the programme to publish the document and said the figures could be independently verified with the World Bank office in Abuja and commercial banks involved in the transactions.

The dispute over Anambra’s finances resurfaced after the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, said the Soludo administration was still repaying loans and other obligations incurred by Mr Obi and previous administrations.

Obi subsequently said he left Anambra without debt and with more than N75 billion in savings.

The state government later released loan records which it said showed that eight external facilities worth $123.7 million were obtained during Mr Obi’s tenure, with $92.35 million still outstanding.

The two sides have presented different interpretations of the nature of the facilities, the amounts actually drawn and the liabilities attributable to the former governor’s administration.