Peter Obi Said He Would Stop Campaigning. Anambra Just Called His Bluff.

Peter Obi promised to end his presidential campaign if anybody could produce evidence that Anambra State workers were owed salaries when he left office in 2014. The Anambra State government under Governor Chukwuma Soludo has now released that evidence, and Lere Olayinka, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, is asking a very direct question on X.

Olayinka wrote: "The Government of Anambra State under the leadership of Professor Charles Soludo, has released evidence to support the earlier statement made by the Governor that the state is still paying part of loans procured by the administration of Peter Obi." He then added: "ME: Now that evidence has been provided, will Peter Obi be a man of his words for once and stop campaigning as he promised?"

The Anambra Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, said the Soludo administration has cleared about N22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears owed to retired state and local government employees and teachers. That is not a small figure. Obi governed Anambra from 2006 to 2014 and has consistently maintained he left no debt behind.

Here is my take as a lawyer. A promise made publicly is a binding statement of honour, even if it is not a contract. If Obi made that vow, he should either produce his own counter-evidence or step back. The problem is that Nigerian politicians treat public declarations like campaign jingles. We clap today, forget tomorrow. But the electorate is watching, and 2027 is not far.

Some of you will say this is Wike's man doing Wike's bidding. Fine. But the question remains: did Obi leave debts or not? The Anambra government says yes. Obi says no. One of them is lying, and N22 billion in cleared arrears is hard to dismiss as propaganda.

Am I the only one that thinks we should hold every politician to their own words, regardless of who is asking the question?