Reality check: DMO record contradicts Peter Obi’s ‘no debt’ claim on Anambra
By The Finder Newspaper Reality Check Desk
Verdict: Misleading
Former Anambra State governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi has maintained that he left office in March 2014 without outstanding obligations, including unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities and processed payments to contractors.
The claim has returned to the centre of political debate over the financial position of Anambra at the end of Obi’s administration. The Finder Newspaper examined an official record from Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO) to establish what the available evidence says about the state’s debt position shortly after he left office.
What does the DMO record show?
Obi left office on 17 March 2014, handing over to his successor after serving as governor of Anambra State.
A DMO document titled States and Federal Governments’ External Debt Stock as at 30th June, 2014 records Anambra State as having an outstanding external debt of $41,459,335.44.
The entire amount was listed as multilateral debt. The table recorded no additional bilateral or commercial and Eurobond debt for Anambra, leaving the state’s total external debt at about $41.46m.
The date of the DMO figures is significant. They show Anambra’s debt position on 30 June 2014, about three and a half months after Obi left office.
The document also carries a qualification. It states that the total outstanding amount recorded against each state excludes arrears owed to the federal government arising from unanticipated disbursements that occurred in 2014.
Click to access Federal-and-State-Governments-External-Debt-Stock-as-at-30th-June_-2014.pdf
What does the evidence tell us?
The DMO document establishes that Anambra had an outstanding external debt stock of $41.46m on 30 June 2014.
It therefore does not support a broad interpretation of Obi’s claim that he left Anambra without “a single debt” if that statement is taken to mean that the state had no outstanding public debt.
There is, however, an important distinction.
The document does not show when each component of the $41.46m debt was contracted or disbursed. It therefore cannot establish from this evidence alone whether all, some or none of the debt originated under Obi’s administration.
Nor does the DMO document settle the separate question of whether Obi left unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or processed contractor bills. The document deals with external debt stock rather than those categories of government liabilities.
The Finder’s reality check
The available documentary evidence does not support an unqualified claim that Anambra State was debt-free when Peter Obi left office.
The DMO’s official record shows that Anambra had $41,459,335.44 in outstanding external debt as of 30 June 2014, shortly after Obi handed over.
Verdict: Misleading
The broad claim that Obi left Anambra without a single debt is misleading when interpreted to mean that the state had no outstanding public debt. The DMO record shows otherwise.
Determining how much of the $41.46m external debt was contracted or disbursed during Obi’s administration would require a loan-by-loan examination of Anambra’s debt records.