Kenneth Okonkwo, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress and former spokesman for Peter Obi’s 2023 presidential campaign, has publicly reversed course on his earlier defence of the former Anambra governor’s financial record.
Speaking on Sunday Politics on Television Continental, Okonkwo said he can no longer stand by statements he once made that Obi left office without debts, unpaid salaries, pensions or gratuities. He is now spokesman for the presidential campaign council of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the ADC candidate for 2027.
“You know me, I’m a very passionate person in whatever I believe in. Let me tell you because I was misled,” he said.
He recalled telling Nigerians during the last campaign that Obi had a clean slate. “There was a time I told Nigerians that Peter Obi was not owing anything, did not leave any debt, he was not owing any salary. No gratuity. No pension. And I said, go and verify.
“I’m not a man that stands on my own misunderstanding. When I see the facts, I agree.”
Okonkwo pointed to recent statements from the Anambra State Government claiming Obi’s administration took eight loans and left salary arrears at the state-owned water corporation. “The fact is Anambra State Government said he borrowed eight loans. The fact is that Anambra State said that at the water corporation, he was owing workers there, all the salaries, all the arrears. I cannot say the same thing that I said about Peter Obi in 2023,” he said.
The comments land amid a running dispute between Obi and the current Anambra government over the state’s debt profile. The state’s Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, has said Anambra is still servicing loans from previous administrations, including those of Obi and former Governor Willie Obiano. Obi has rejected the claims, insisting he left no outstanding debts, salaries, pensions or contractor payments and that he deposited N2.1 billion in an ecological fund. The state government has countered that Obi left $123.77 million in debt, disputed the ecological fund figure, and released documents it says show N363.38 million in inherited salary arrears.
Okonkwo also revisited an earlier defence of Obi’s family over a high-value wristwatch linked to a son of President Bola Tinubu. “There was a time they figured out that Tinubu’s son was wearing a watch worth up to N135 million,” he said. “I ran out on television and I said nobody from Peter Obi’s family can ever wear such a thing when people are dying in poverty. I stuck my reputation on it. Can I still say that today?”
He framed the shift as a change in role ahead of 2027. “That’s why I said in 2023, I campaigned for them as the examination in chief. In 2027, it’s going to be a cross-examination,” he said.
Obi governed Anambra from March 2006 to March 2014, with a brief interruption after an impeachment that courts later overturned, and handed over to Obiano on 17 March 2014.
