…As Analysis Challenges N127bn Undisclosed Liabilities
The face-off between Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State and former governor, Mr Peter Obi, has been trailed by further confusion after moral questions about the N75 billion handover to ex-governor Willie Obiano, despite the N127 billion undisclosed liabilities Obi entered into without the knowledge of his successor.
In the course of trading words with Governor Soludo, Obi announced the sum of N127 billion in undisclosed liabilities, which has been described as a case of deficit as against his claims of saving N75 billion.
According to Mr Chike Anyaonu, a public affairs commentator who spoke to reporters in Awka, if truly Obi saved the sum of N75 billion, it would have been accessible to service or liquidate, adding that the fresh issues of N127 billion of debt do not make fiscal sense.
“Yet, here lies the central contradiction: if Obi truly left N75 billion in savings as he claimed, those funds would have been accessible to service or liquidate the liabilities before handover”
“Public accounting does not operate on net-off logic. Savings and debts occupy separate columns on the ledger.”
“A governor who declares “I left N75 billion in savings” while simultaneously contracting N127 billion in undisclosed liabilities is not presenting a balanced fiscal picture; he is presenting two disconnected facts that, when combined, reveal a deficit position”
“The attempt to subtract one from the other is not accounting; it is rhetoric masquerading as mathematics. That’s because assets do not automatically liquidate liabilities”
“A treasury with N75 billion sitting idle while N127 billion in debt obligations accumulate elsewhere is still a treasury that has failed to address its indebtedness”
Anyaonu further contended that in view of this development, Anambra continues paying for those loans long after Obi departed office as governor, a measurable reality, regardless of how one chooses to frame the historical narrative.
“Of course, governance is a continuum, but accountability requires discontinuity in disclosure. Each administration must account for what it inherited and what it left behind as complete pictures, not curated fragments”
He insisted that what Anambra State, and indeed Nigeria, requires now is not more defensive posturing by Mr Peter Obi but radical transparency.
“There is a need to publish all loan agreements signed between 2006 and 2014, including disbursement dates, repayment schedules, interest terms, and utilisation certificates showing where funds physically went”
“Also, a forensic audit of First Bank Account No. 2018779464 from 2011 to the present should be conducted by independent auditors. And the reconciliation of the handover note delivered in 2014 against actual financial positions at that moment is imperative”
“,In the end, a debt utilised is a debt taken. An undisclosed liability remains a liability regardless of when it surfaces”
“Savings do not cancel debts in public accounting, as they represent separate line items that together determine whether a stewardship ended in surplus or deficit”
He opined that as Peter Obi seeks to contest for national office, the question of his Anambra record transcends local politics.
“It speaks to a fundamental principle: leaders must account for the full consequences of their decisions, not just the portions that reflect favourably on them”, he noted.
