Obi Hammers Obiano

Mr Peter Obi has taken down Governor Obiano to where it hurts.

Obi has facts and figures…but Obiano has nothing but “I was left with debt.” Obiano is not telling where these debts come from

QUESTION: The Obiano government claims you left a debt of N127 billion?

PETER OBI: The day I left office, I did not have any unpaid certificate of work that had been executed. I did not have any certificate of supply that was delivered that was not paid for. As an accountant I expect him to know that contracts are not debts until executed. He was just trying to confuse the people through half-truths. Let him explain to the people that he included contracts yet to be executed. When I became Governor in 2006,

Dr. Chris Ngige awarded the reconstruction of Zik’s Avenue – the major road in Awka, and a lot of other roads. These were ongoing projects. Because he paid for all the certificates generated, I did not say, based on the contracts unexecuted, that he left me with debts. No contractor came to me saying Ngige owed him. Likewise, ask the governor to tell you how many contractors came to complain that Peter Obi owed them. The biggest contractor we had when I was in office was RCC and IDC, go and ask them if I owed them.

Our biggest supplier was Innoson, Coscharis, and HP. In each case, I paid them in advance. I bought over 1000 vehicles from Innoson and paid him at least six months to one year before he supplied me one; the same with HP. As Governor, I had dedicated amount I shared among the contractors once allocations came. That was why, under me, work went on non-stop.

Immediately my predecessor was elected, I explained all these to him in the hope that if he got it right, Anambra State would be the ultimate beneficiary. I even took him to all the international partners working for us. Ironically, it was Mr. Oseloka Obaze, using his international contacts, that connected us to most of them. We went to the World Bank, DFID, UN, JICA, EU, UNDP. In fact, I explained to him our relationship with the UNDP, how, after I allowed them to use our Lodge as office after the attack on their office and how the state had benefitted much fold. Surprisingly, one of the first things he did was to issue UNDP with a quit notice.

I am trying to recall this to show you how well we meant for the success of the governor. Rather than face governance, he is peddling falsehoods against me, including the accusation I bequeathed debt to him. Ask the governor to give you the schedule of those debts. What is happening shows the quality they’ve reduced governance to in my state today. It shouldn’t be. It’s like a situation where they say “my government was able to export vegetables worth $5 million.” Where was that vegetable produced? What was the refrigeration process? Where is the documentation process? It is like also saying “my government is exporting rice.

”You saw the president on October 1, thanking states that are producing rice, he did not even include Anambra State that is now, according to the governor, a net exporter of rice.

They say, “my government had the order to export 10 million tubers of yam,” but everybody knows that in Anambra State most of the yams we eat come from Benue and Taraba states.

I think what is happening is that in the absence of executed projects to use to campaign, as Cicero advised Quintus, they are inventing lies and dressing them as the truth. Have you asked yourself why all this controversy about the money I left now that there is an election?