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By 247ureports.com
As the ongoing feud between former Anambra Governor Peter Obi and the Soludo-led state government continues to dominate headlines ahead of 2027, comparisons between the two administrations’ records have become a central battleground. Here is a category-by-category look at how the two tenures stack up, drawing on official disclosures and claims from both camps — with the caveat that several figures remain contested.
Roads
Obi’s camp has long cited over 800 kilometres of roads constructed during his eight years in office (2006–2014), a figure that supporters say earned Anambra recognition as having the best road network in Nigeria at the time, alongside the establishment of a dedicated Road Maintenance Agency and contractor maintenance bonds requiring builders to maintain roads for 5–7 years after completion. The Anambra State Government under Soludo has disputed this framing, alleging Obi’s own handover note failed to disclose N127 billion in outstanding liabilities on 101 signed road contracts covering 779 kilometres left unpaid.
Soludo’s administration has publicized over 400 kilometres of new roads built or under construction within just his first two years in office across most of the state’s 21 local government areas, including major projects like the Amansea–Ebenebe–Ugbenu–Ugbene–Awba Ofemili road and the Ifite-Awka flyover. Field visits organized during his tenure found visible, active construction sites, with residents crediting the projects for opening up previously inaccessible farming communities. Precise cumulative totals for Soludo’s full tenure to date are not independently verified.
Schools and Hospitals
Obi’s administration is credited with building Anambra’s first state-owned teaching hospital, upgrading primary healthcare facilities, and lifting the state’s WAEC ranking from 25th to 1st nationally over his final three years, alongside a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation award for polio eradication performance.
Soludo’s government has pursued a comparable push: the administration says it has employed over 8,000 teachers, built 22 “smart schools,” declared free education from kindergarten through secondary school, and rehabilitated 130 primary healthcare centres while constructing five new general hospitals — including facilities in LGAs that previously had none. The state also reports providing free antenatal and delivery services to more than 161,000 pregnant women, including 594 free caesarean deliveries, and recruiting roughly 1,500 health workers, alongside introducing telemedicine services. Soludo was separately recognized as Nigeria’s best-performing governor on primary healthcare delivery.
Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
This is one of the sharper contrasts cited by Soludo’s supporters. The administration’s IGR team has reported the state’s monthly internally generated revenue climbing from roughly N2.2 million in 2023 to N5.2 billion by 2024, driven partly by automation of tax collection and market-revenue reforms — traders’ association IGR alone reportedly rose from N400 million to N4.5 billion annually under one market leader’s tenure. A fiscal performance ranking has placed Anambra among Nigeria’s top states on IGR growth and self-sufficiency in recent years. Comparable independently verified IGR figures for the Obi era are less readily available, making a direct year-on-year comparison difficult.
Security and Crime
Security has followed sharply different trajectories in the two administrations, shaped partly by regional context. Obi’s tenure predated the “unknown gunmen” (UGM) crisis that has convulsed the Southeast since around 2021. Soludo’s government, by contrast, inherited and has governed through that crisis: violent attacks intensified within two months of his March 2022 inauguration, prompting curfews across multiple LGAs, raids on kidnappers’ camps, and controversial public remarks in which Soludo asserted that most gunmen captured in the state were ethnic Igbo criminals rather than political agitators or Fulani herdsmen. Independent conflict monitoring recorded 218 security incidents and 305 fatalities in Anambra between January 2024 and August 2025 alone. High-profile incidents during Soludo’s tenure include the 2023 ambush of a U.S. consular convoy in Atani and the killing of a banker in January 2025 despite a paid ransom. The state government maintains security has measurably improved since the peak of the UGM crisis in 2022, though attacks, including on political figures, have persisted into 2025.
Financial Management
Both administrations claim fiscal discipline as a core legacy, but the specifics are now hotly disputed. Obi’s camp maintains he left Anambra debt-free with over $150 million in bank savings and no unpaid salaries — a claim the current state government has directly challenged, citing DMO-verified records of $123.77 million in IDA-World Bank loans signed during his tenure (with an outstanding balance of $92.35 million as of June 2026), plus an out-of-court settlement of roughly N1.56 billion for unpaid Water Corporation workers. Soludo’s government says it has avoided new commercial borrowing since taking office and has focused capital expenditure heavily in its budgets — the 2026 budget allocated N595.3 billion of a N757.9 billion total to capital projects. However, civil liberties group InterSociety issued a September 2026 statement acknowledging Soludo’s no-new-borrowing record while criticizing the administration for insufficient transparent disclosure of its financial accounts and liabilities.
Borrowing and External Loans
Both administrations have taken on externally financed obligations, though the nature and framing of that borrowing differs and remains disputed.
Obi’s tenure is at the center of the current controversy: the state government says his administration signed eight IDA-World Bank loans totaling $123.77 million, with an outstanding balance of $92.35 million (N127.37 billion) still being serviced today through monthly FAAC deductions — debt the state says continued into the Obiano and now Soludo administrations. Obi has firmly rejected the framing that he personally borrowed this money, stating he never approached any financial institution to borrow funds or issue bonds on Anambra’s behalf during his eight years in office. Independent research circulated in the dispute has pointed out that at least one of the cited facilities — the $180 million Nigeria Malaria Control Booster Project — was structured as an IDA credit to the Federal Government of Nigeria, with Anambra one of seven participating states via a subsidiary financing arrangement, rather than a loan Anambra independently contracted. Obi has also separately disputed the debt figures on their face, citing federal debt records showing Anambra’s total external debt stood at roughly $30 million in March 2014 and $45.15 million by December 2014 — far below the $123.77 million the state attributes to his tenure.
Soludo’s government has repeatedly stated it has not borrowed from any commercial bank since taking office in March 2022, with Finance Commissioner Okafor saying the administration’s fiscal focus has been paying down the backlog of loans inherited from the Obi and Obiano eras rather than adding new debt. For its 2025 budget, presented with an estimated deficit of N148.3 billion, Soludo said the shortfall would be funded either through revenue growth or borrowing from financial institutions if needed, while noting that in both 2023 and 2024 the state did not actually borrow to finance budget deficits. As with the roads and IGR figures, independently verified confirmation of Soludo’s no-new-borrowing claim beyond the state’s own disclosures is limited in current reporting.
Administration, Transparency and Corruption
Obi has pointed to his willingness to invite EFCC scrutiny of his own records as evidence of transparency, and is frequently cited for personal austerity anecdotes, such as declining to build a presidential lodge. Soludo has similarly invited EFCC audits of his administration’s records. Both men’s tenures carry some corruption-adjacent history: Soludo faced EFCC questioning in 2013, during his earlier tenure as Central Bank Governor, over polymer-currency printing contracts, though this predates his governorship and resulted in no prosecution. His immediate predecessor as governor, Willie Obiano, was arrested by the EFCC on misappropriation allegations shortly after handing over to Soludo — a matter Soludo’s government has cited in disputing claims about the state’s finances at the point of transition. At the community level, Soludo’s administration has faced periodic protests calling for EFCC probes into local officials, such as a September 2025 demonstration in Enugwu-Agidi alleging land-grabbing and financial impropriety by a community leader appointee.
Commerce and Investment Attraction
Obi’s tenure is remembered for landing two marquee investments: SABMiller’s roughly $100 million brewery in Onitsha — its first “Green Fields” operation in the state — and the establishment of Innoson Motors, Nigeria’s first indigenous vehicle manufacturing plant, from which his government purchased over 1,000 vehicles for official use. Anambra also became an oil-producing state during his tenure, and Onitsha ranked among the World Bank’s top 50 cities globally for private-sector job growth between 2006 and 2012.
Soludo has pursued a more masterplan-driven industrialization strategy, anchored by the 4,000-hectare Anambra Mixed-Use Industrial City (AMIC) in Orumba North, designed to house agro-processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, automobile assembly and textile industries. His administration has also launched the Anambra Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Park in Ogboji and actively courted investors through the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA), which lists AMIC, an automotive industrial park, an agro-industrial park, an export emporium and an intra-city rail project among its active pipeline. The state has also claimed a top ranking in ease of doing business and SME-friendliness, though this claim originates from the state government’s own information commissioner rather than an independent index cited in current reporting.
General Infrastructure: Markets, Parks, Recreational Centres and Government Offices
Obi’s tenure produced Anambra’s first purpose-built Secretariat Complex, consolidating government ministries that had previously been scattered across rented buildings. His administration also began work on a “Three Arms Zone” government complex planned for a site in Ishiagu, along with the Agulu Lake Hotel project and other tourism-linked developments — though the state government has since disputed the value and completion status of several of these, alleging in its recent rebuttal that projects including the Agulu Lake Hotel were still at foundation stage when Obi left office, and that the Nnewi Shopping Mall and an Onitsha hotel project listed among his handover assets were abandoned and now derelict.
Soludo has made large-scale physical infrastructure and urban renewal a signature of his administration. His government is building a new Anambra Government House on 23 hectares in Awka — described as over 80% complete and the largest in the country, featuring a high-rise secretariat, governor’s lodge, sports complex, amphitheater and residential apartments for civil servants — alongside a planned monument in front of it intended to boost tourism. On markets, the administration has constructed and commissioned facilities including the Solution Market in Ekwulọbịa, built specifically to accommodate traders displaced by the Ekwulọbịa flyover project, and has undertaken a controversial demolition and remodeling of Onitsha’s Main Market aimed at easing decades of traffic congestion, under the tagline “if you cannot park, you cannot shop.” On recreation, Soludo’s government opened Solution Fun City — billed as the largest water and amusement park complex in West Africa, complete with a country club, and commissioned by President Tinubu in May 2026 — alongside ongoing work on the Agulu Lake Leisure Park, the Igbo-Ukwu Museum upgrade, a Fun City and Neighborhood Entertainment/Recreational Centre in Awka, and the fencing of a Safari Park in Anaocha LGA. The administration also renovated Dr. Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka and has announced plans for a 10-storey Marriott Hotel and what it describes as Africa’s largest shopping mall in the state capital. Government messaging has framed these projects as executed without new borrowing, a claim consistent with the state’s broader no-new-debt position addressed above but similarly not independently verified beyond official disclosures.
Welfare
Obi’s government is remembered for poverty mapping initiatives — reportedly the first in Nigeria — aimed at guiding poverty-alleviation policy, alongside investments in maternal and infant health that contributed to the Gates Foundation recognition. Soludo’s administration has emphasized direct social intervention programs, including free delivery and antenatal services, free basic education, and skills-empowerment initiatives such as the “1 Youth 2 Skills” program — though the latter has drawn its own controversy, with a coalition of participants publicly alleging mismanagement and exclusion of genuine beneficiaries by a state commissioner in October 2025.
Youth Empowerment
Obi revived the Anambra State Youth Re-Orientation & Empowerment Programme (ANSYREP), which provided grants and training to young entrepreneurs, alongside a Youth Employment Fund aimed at boosting job creation and supporting emerging businesses.
Soludo’s government has leaned heavily into digital-economy youth programming, branding Anambra’s ambition to become “Africa’s Silicon Valley.” Through the Solution Innovation District, the state has run startup incubation programmes — most recently disbursing N80 million (N1 million each) to 80 startups that completed a 12-week programme — alongside a “1 Million Anambra Digital Tribe” initiative targeting one million residents with digital skills by 2030, which the state says has already reached 264,000 beneficiaries, and a separate “1 Youth 2 Skills” vocational scheme. That vocational programme, however, has drawn controversy: a coalition of participants publicly alleged in October 2025 that a state commissioner manipulated beneficiary selection, calling for his removal and an investigation.
Women Development
Obi’s record on women’s development is less distinctly documented in current disclosures than his broader poverty and health initiatives, though his general poverty-mapping and human-capital programs are cited as having disproportionately benefited women in rural and informal-sector livelihoods.
Soludo’s administration has made women’s empowerment a more visible, institutionally branded priority, driven substantially through First Lady Dr. Nonye Soludo’s Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo Initiative. The flagship effort is the Anambra Skilled Ladies Programme, which aims to train roughly 6,000 women in high-demand technical trades — including solar installation and AC repair — traditionally dominated by men; its first phase drew over 10,000 applications for 100 slots. The First Lady has also led broader empowerment drives, including a September 2026 exercise distributing business equipment and livelihood tools to 5,000 residents across all 21 LGAs, held in partnership with Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu. Separately, the federal government’s SDGs/Renewed Hope Initiative empowered 500 vulnerable Anambra women, including widows, with start-up equipment in coordination with the state. The Soludo government has also appointed a Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development to oversee gender-focused policy. Independent, quantifiable outcome data — such as measurable increases in women’s economic indicators — is not yet available in current reporting for either administration.
LGA and Community Development
This is one of the more consequential points of contrast between the two administrations. Obi did not conduct local government elections for nearly all of his eight years in office, holding them only in 2013, his final year — a delay he has attributed to the protracted litigation over his own gubernatorial mandate, which consumed much of his tenure. For most of his time in office, Anambra’s 21 LGAs were consequently run without elected chairmen.
Soludo inherited that same gap: after Obi’s 2013 polls, no further local government elections were held in Anambra for over a decade, until Soludo’s administration conducted them in September 2024. Those elections drew significant controversy — opposition figures, including a Labour Party governorship aspirant, characterized them as manipulated and lacking credibility, citing a last-minute amendment that cut the public notice period for the polls from 60 to 30 days, and noting that the Labour Party and other opposition parties boycotted the exercise. Soludo’s APGA-led government swept all 21 LGA chairmanship seats in that election. The administration followed up by signing the Anambra Local Government Administration Law in October 2024, which critics argued curtails local government chairmen’s independence even as the state framed it as necessary coordination consistent with the constitution’s grant of state authority over local government administration; Soludo has separately argued that full local government financial autonomy, as pushed nationally by President Tinubu, risks creating administrative chaos without proper structures in place first. A second round of local government elections was slated for August 2025 under a zoning arrangement the administration has promoted as building grassroots stability ahead of the 2029 governorship race.
Erosion Management and Storm Control
Obi’s administration is credited with attracting World Bank support to Anambra through the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), targeting sites such as the Abagana gully cluster in Njikoka LGA. Erosion has since worsened considerably: by 2022, officials estimated the state had over 1,000 active erosion sites, with a state commissioner in 2025 describing gully erosion as having consumed roughly 70% of Anambra’s landmass and warning that less than 3% of the erosion menace was under control. Soludo has publicly labeled gully erosion and flooding the state’s number one existential threat, and his government has continued NEWMAP-linked remediation across sites including Ndiagu Ikenga Ogidi, Nkpor Flyover, Ugamuma Obosi and Abagana, alongside emergency interventions after severe road damage on the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway near Oba. Despite the ongoing effort, new erosion sites have continued to emerge between 2022 and 2025, and the scale of the problem — underscored by this week’s fatal flooding of a school bus in Awka — remains a persistent, largely unresolved crisis spanning both administrations.
The Bottom Line
Direct comparison is complicated by differing eras, differing federal allocations, inflation, and the fact that Obi’s tenure ended over a decade ago while Soludo’s is ongoing and only partially documented in independently verified figures. What is clear is that both men have built substantial public records they consider legacies — and each now faces pointed, document-based challenges to parts of that record from political rivals ahead of 2027.
