Despite $123.77bn loan, poverty increased under Peter Obi — Anambra govt

The government also stated that Obi couldn't provide a rural water scheme in the state despite spending $4.05 billion (equivalent to N5.4 trillion at the current exchange rate) in eight years.

The government lamented that it has paid billions of naira in debt service payments so far, even as it rebutted Obi's claim that he left no debt before he left office.

"At the current official exchange rate, it would sum to about N5.4 trillion, and he surely governed to the best of his ability. Of course, no government will ever finish the work of development.

HE Peter Obi still left a state without any functioning urban or rural water schemes, increasing insecurity and INCREASED POVERTY, ostensibly dead public schools and dead public hospitals with grossly inadequate teachers and medical personnel. Indeed, 44% of all communities in Anambra, 78 out of 179, did not and still do not have any public primary schools.

This administration is only beginning to close the gap, despite decrepit infrastructure, huge urban slums, etc. Only about 27% of Anambra residents patronised public health institutions because of poor quality and non-functionality (he even admitted abandoning the public health system at the recent NBA conference).

We are convinced that many Ndi Anambra would not have minded if HE Peter Obi had borrowed to fix public schools and hospitals, water schemes, infrastructure, or even to reduce poverty and insecurity. Debt, especially for bankable projects and human capital development, is justifiable. So, HE Peter Obi should stop being irked as if all debt is bad," the state said.

It said that as at the date Obi left office (17th March 2014), there were, and still are, eight different external borrowings his administration left for his successors.