That Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano finally decided to set the records straight on the N75bn cash purportedly left in the coffers of the state by his predecessor did not come as a surprise to discerning observers. Since Obiano took over the reins on March 17, 2014 there has been orchestrated campaign of misinformation by agents of Mr. Peter Obi aimed at reinforcing the claim that the ex-governor left huge sums of cash. In fact when the claims were queried by concerned persons, the Obi camp modified the narrative to the effect that it is not all cash after all, that the legacy to Ndi Anambra included investments.
On his part, Obiano refused to confront the misinformation publicly. In his permutations, such engagement is not only meant to distract him from the onerous task of governance but would run counter to his investment drive which has seen the state investment portfolio increase to $2.4bn USD. The governor insisted that it would amount to de-marketing Anambra, if on one hand he is prospecting potential investors and on another hand going public to counter claims that would show that the state was actually in deficit should it choose to meet all financial obligations entered into by the ex-governor who for reasons best known to him chose to trumpet savings and ignored liabilities.
To worsen matters, Mr. Peter Obi who chose to fulfill his obligation to former President Jonathan by dumping the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to bolster his chances of making the federal cabinet list post 2015 elections, did not foresee the President Muhammadu Buhari’s whirlwind triumph. Unfortunately, Obi’s permutations and the feeble excuse that his former friends in APGA pushed him out failed. Even the compensation as board chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was short-lived due to the new president’s clean sweep of board appointments. Thus Mr. Obi, who is reported to hold a personal grudge against his successor is said to have promised insiders that he would make life unbearable for Obian. It is therefore not surprising that the former governor, a master of proxy war, started surreptitious funding of misinformation campaign executed against the person of Obiano. But in the face of all these, governor Obiano remained silent choosing to concentrate on building structures of governance that hitherto never existed in the state.
Fast forward to the change of guards at the Presidency, the release of bail-out funds to some states and the revelation that Nigeria is broke. To paint a realistic picture, the Federal Allocation due to Anambra State as at September 11, 2014 stood at N4, 251,312,255.01bn but by September 2015 it had dropped to the sum of N2, 861,307,916,42bn, a difference of N1.4 bn, and indications show it is still dropping. Yet the purveyors of falsehood about Anambra finances went to town that Obiano is able to pay salaries because Obi left N75bn, when in reality Obi had left the state in debt. It is instructive that ex-governor Peter Obi’s hand over note showed cash balance of N11bn as December 2014 which dropped to N9bn on handover date of March 17, 2014, yet he was silent on the N106.2bn from the total N185bn on inherited contracts out of which governor Obiano has further defrayed N35bn in the spirit and letters of Continuity.
Some have asked why did it take Obiano long to speak? The appropriate question to ask is, why sustain a lie for eighteen months just to score cheap political point and take an underserved glory? A review of the Obi handover note shows that it was not an audited account signed off by a certified Accountant, but his own recollections. On the other hand, Obiano is an Accountant and an Auditor of international repute who did not dig dip to discover obvious discrepancies in the Obi Handover note. But instead of descending into public spat with his friend and predecessor, he made efforts privately to correct the miscalculations but the Obi camp refused to recant, choosing to sustain the narrative because it sounded politically correct. But the times have changed, prodded by the frequency of the absurd tales on Anambra finances and having failed in private appeal to the former governor to rein-in his paid hands without success, Obiano chose to set the records straight for Ndi Anambra and discerning Nigerians to know the true facts.
It behooves therefore on all to ignore the misinformation and embrace the facts. From the records, there was never N75bn cash anywhere in Anambra government coffers based on former governor Obi’s account, and the current governor has not touched the N9bn cash he actually left. Most importantly, Obiano inherited a deficit of N106.2bn based on the contractual exposures which the former governor incurred up to his very last minute in office. Many would remember that former governor Obi continued to award contracts and flag-off projects on March 17, 2014 shortly before he stepped-out to hand over. The right thing to do is to praise governor Obiano for bearing the pains of this grand deceit with equanimity until this moment. By continuing with misinformation in recorded interviews and through his cronies and proxies, Obi willfully forced Obiano’s hand and he spoke up strictly for the records.
