- Says interview distorted to misrepresent remarks on Obi
- Insists he cleared salary, gratuity, pension arrears
- Says Obi met ₦13.8bn in state coffers, hails Soludo’s stewardship
Former Anambra State governor, Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige, has denied reports circulating on social media and some mainstream outlets that he criticised the incumbent governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, over perceived comments about Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi.
In a statement issued on Friday and signed by Hygg Obialor, Special Assistant, Ngige Media Office, the ex–Minister of Labour and Employment said the claim was a misreading of an interview he granted Signature TV as part of his 8 August 2025 birthday activities.
He said that the contentious segment was “badly edited.”
“Our attention has been drawn to a news item… purporting that our principal, HE Chris Nwabueze Ngige… had critiqued HE Mr Governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, alleging that he is not like him who is always criticising the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, Mr Peter Obi,” the statement said. “Firstly, a critical look at the video will show that this area has been badly edited.”
Clarifying what Ngige actually said, the media office quoted him as stating: “I don’t want to be like Soludo whom our people wrongly perceive everything he says to be against Peter Obi.”
It added that Ngige immediately balanced that line with: “But constitutionally, he is entitled to his opinion and views on any matter.”
According to the statement, “this stanza was edited off,” and what viewers then saw was a separate portion where Ngige remarked that “Peter Obi did well as Governor.”
The statement said the attention of Signature TV had been drawn to the anomaly. “They have apologised and have started making amends,” the media office noted.
Addressing narratives about the state of Anambra when he assumed office, Ngige argued that portrayals of a “failed state, with unpaid salaries, gratuities and pensions, no security, [and] unbridled corruption,” were not accurate for his tenure.
He maintained that arrears inherited from the administration of Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju were cleared and that, going forward, salaries and gratuities were diligently paid.
He further said his government implemented a 142% rise in pensions and placed pensions on first-line charge.
The only gray area, according to the statement, was a “tiny component” of arrears for pensioners of the old Anambra State (covering present-day Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi), whose claims were still being processed when he left office.
“But all pensioners of Anambra State origin who served in the Old Anambra and present Anambra State got their new Ngige 142% pensions monthly,” the statement stressed.
Ngige linked these fiscal and administrative measures to Anambra’s performance in education, stating that the state emerged as “best Education State” in evaluation exercises for 2004, 2005 and 2006.
The trophies, the statement explained, were handed out subsequently in 2007–2008 and received by the chairman of the state’s education board.
On transition finances, the statement said Mr Obi “inherited ₦13.8 billion in the various bank accounts of the Anambra State Government,” including ₦8.7 billion in an Infrastructure Account and ₦2.8 billion in the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) account with Zenith Bank for rehabilitation and construction of primary and junior secondary school buildings and the provision of education materials.
Ngige, it added, asked that Obi be “magnanimous enough to acknowledge he laid the foundations and worked for those awards since government is a continuum. Nothing more!!”
The former governor also moved to dispel the impression that he bears any animus toward either Obi or Soludo.
While reiterating that he had “nothing against Gov. Peter Obi,” he reserved special praise for Soludo, describing him as “one of the best from our state,” who served meritoriously at the national level “first as Chief Economic Adviser to the President and later as Central Bank Governor (2004–2005), all without blemish.”
The statement noted that as an elder statesman and former governor, Ngige had publicly eulogised Soludo at the second- and third-anniversary celebrations of his administration for “managing the resources [money and human] of the state with a lot of dexterity, excellence, and care.” It concluded emphatically: “He has done very well. Again, Odenigbo carry go!!”
