“An Insider’s Ledger on Peter Obi’s $155 Million Anambra Reserves which Gov. Soludo did not see in Anambra account books.”
By Valentine Obienyem
In public discourse, political rhetoric is cheap, but banking ledgers are stubborn things. When critics dismissed Peter Obi’s claim of leaving behind substantial savings and investments at the end of his tenure as Governor of Anambra State, the debate was decisively settled not by a partisan defender, but by a consummate professional who held the receipts.
In his backpage column titled “The Triumph of Profligacy Over Prudence,” published in THISDAY on Monday, June 8, 2020, Dr. Alex Otti—then the former Group Managing Director and CEO of Diamond Bank, and now Governor of Abia State – provided an authoritative, firsthand testimony that removed the issue from the realm of speculation.
Otti was neither a spectator nor a political surrogate; he was the chief executive of the financial institution that structured the transaction. He recounted how Governor Obi approached his office with a deliberate mandate: to insulate Anambra State’s accumulated fiscal surplus against the perennial ravages of inflation and domestic currency depreciation. Rather than leaving surplus liquidity to languish in rapidly eroding naira accounts, Otti’s bank facilitated the conversion of state funds into $155 million, securing them in high-yielding, foreign-denominated assets.
To mitigate counterparty risk and guarantee liquidity, the investment was prudently syndicated across three leading commercial banks: $50 million in Diamond Bank, $50 million in Access Bank, and $55 million in Fidelity Bank. These funds were locked into five-year Tier-2 capital instruments yielding up to 9% per annum, accruing strictly to the credit of Anambra State.
The arithmetic of that foresight was staggering. As Otti demonstrated, the original $155 million portfolio – valued at roughly ₦25 billion when deposited in early 2014 – had appreciated exponentially through currency realignments and compounding dollar coupons. By mid-2020, the present value of that single portfolio had expanded to well over ₦95 billion.
To ask whether Alex Otti was lying is to ignore both the gravity of professional reputation and the immutable nature of banking records. A bank chief executive cannot invent $155 million out of thin air, syndicate it across three competitor institutions, and place it on regulatory records without leaving an indelible paper trail.
Otti’s intervention remains an unassailable piece of primary evidence: Peter Obi did not merely leave money behind; he demonstrated a masterclass in sovereign wealth management that defied Nigeria’s culture of administrative waste.
To listen to him directly, visit: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DsEcGWsbC/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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