Jay Chikezie

My interview with Peter Obi a few days ago on Arise Prime Time focused largely on the Obi-Soludo debt row. At the heart of it was a World Bank facility. It was not a commercial bank loan. It was a world bank multilateral development credit, offered to selected states, with a federal government sovereign guarantee. The terms are long-term, near-zero interest, tied to specific reforms, such as budget transparency, fiscal sustainability, education, etc. The crucial distinction is between approved vs draw down. Peter Obi's position is that he agreed to it but did not draw down. He did not access it. Technically, that can be true. The loan facility is approved and signed at the federal executive council/world bank level, and the state signs a subsidiary agreement. But money only enters the state's account when it meets disbursement conditions and requests drawdown. Obi says he left the money untouched in the pipeline and that he left savings, not debt on the books. The Soludo camp's position is that he signed off on it. Also true. And this is where the fight is. Soludo's team argues approval is commitment - once signed, Anambra was on the hook, and that's why it shows up in the Debt Management Office records as inherited liability. Obi's supporters say his successor chose to draw it. Obi showed discipline by not touching it. Obi approved it and signed Anambra onto it, but says he never drew down a kobo - his successor did. So where does it go from here? Will both sides publish the DMO statements and drawdown dates, and let the documents settle who signed what, when it was drawn, and what it was spent on? And with 2027 politics already in the air, will this row give the Nigerian people a clear audit of what was met, what was left, and what they still owe? Or just more politics and a sabre-rattling war of words?