Building a Better Nigeria Through Service. Yesterday in Lagos, I attended a dinner organised for Lagos NDC candidates and hosted by the Lagos Obidient Movement. I used the occasion to remind the candidates that seeking public office is not about titles, positions, or the privileges associated with them. It is about accepting the responsibility to serve and committing ourselves to building a better Nigeria. Having witnessed the suffering and hardship that our people continue to endure, we must remain conscious of the tremendous responsibility placed in our hands. Nigerians deserve leaders who are accessible, actively engaged, accountable, and willing to lead by example. Our politics must establish a standard for others to follow. It must therefore be founded on competence, character, capacity, compassion, and a genuine commitment to the common good. A better Nigeria is within reach, but achieving it requires leaders who are prepared to lead by example and remain accessible. A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO

Nigeria at 66: Looking Back, Looking Forward Fellow Nigerians, Today we mark the sixty-sixth anniversary of our independence. It ought to be a day of celebration and thanksgiving to God Almighty for the gift of life and for the immense blessings He has bestowed on our nation—our diversity, our abundant human and natural resources, our vast agricultural potential, and the relative absence of devastating natural disasters. It should also be a day of appreciation and patriotism: a day to remember our founding fathers and all those who made selfless, and in many cases supreme, sacrifices for the birth, survival and growth of our dear nation. We must acknowledge the efforts of past and present leaders who have laboured, however imperfectly, to build a better Nigeria. Yet independence anniversaries must never be reduced to mere celebration. They are moments for honest national reflection. We must look back, examine where we stand today, and ask ourselves whether we are moving in the direction our founding fathers envisioned. In national planning and strategy, every serious nation must continually ask three fundamental questions: Where are we today? Where do we want to be? How do we get from where we are to where we want to be? These questions are especially urgent now. Despite the enormous promises made by the APC-led government in 2023, our nation continues to face deepening challenges across virtually every critical sector of national life. Today we stand before the world as a nation: With an extraordinarily large population living in poverty and severe hardship; over 140M With one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world; over 18M Where insecurity, terrorism, banditry and kidnapping continue to threaten lives and livelihoods, just recently 37 young Nigerians in their productive age lost their lives Where millions of Nigerians struggle with hunger and food insecurity; over 40M Nigerians will be in extreme hunger by the end of 2026. With unacceptably high rates of infant and maternal mortality; Nigeria today is the worst place to be born. Where youth unemployment and underemployment remain alarmingly high; over 35M Where drug abuse and substance misuse increasingly threaten our young population; today 14% as against global average of 6% Where life expectancy remains among the lowest globally, today 54 years against global average of 74 years And the list goes on. This reality demands serious, sober and honest reflection. Socrates taught that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” By the same principle, an unexamined nation cannot successfully chart its future. We must therefore ask ourselves: Are we cursed, or have we become the curse through the choices we have made and the failures we have tolerated? The answer cannot be that Nigeria is cursed. We are a nation immensely endowed and blessed. Our greatest problem is not a lack of resources; it is the failure to convert our enormous resources into human development, productivity, security and shared prosperity. Only yesterday, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and I returned from a two-day visit to Sokoto State. We held extensive consultations with people from different parts of the state on insecurity, out-of-school children, poverty, youth unemployment, drug abuse and other challenges confronting our people. In concluding the visit, we went to the Internally Displaced Persons camp at Ramin Kura within Sokoto metropolis. What we saw was deeply troubling. Thousands of women and children live in deplorable conditions, displaced from their homes and deprived of the basic necessities of life. Many of the children have no access to education. Mothers and children have limited access to basic healthcare. These are Nigerians who should be living in their communities, going to school, farming their land, conducting their businesses and contributing to the economy. Instead, they live as displaced persons in their own country.

Where Is Nigeria’s President? The dynamic President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, delivered a remarkable address at the 81st United Nations General Assembly. The international community has commended his leadership and the substance of his address. It is a reminder of what leadership can produce when competence, capacity, compassion, commitment and character come together in the service of a nation. Against this background, many are asking: Where is the President of Africa’s most populous nation, a country of more than 200 million people - more than Ghana - whose leader has been absent from the global stage for three consecutive UNGAs? Nigeria’s President, who ought to be representing the country and providing leadership for Africa at the international level, has not attended any of these three global gatherings. Where is he, particularly at a time when the country faces significant challenges, both domestically and internationally? Although our Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was present, the question remains: Where is the President? Let us continue to pray for his return and for his leadership in addressing the many challenges confronting the nation. A new Nigeria is POssible. -PO Check out this video, "ghana president at un" share.google/uBKw1UKhpaRyDjB…

ON THE ANAMBRA DEBT QUESTION I have remained silent over the past few days because I have been grieving the loss of my very dear elder brother and friend, Chief Okey Ezeibe. However, the time has come for me to address some of the matters that have occupied public discussion in recent days. I respectfully urge everyone to concentrate on the existential challenges confronting Nigeria and the hardships endured by its citizens, rather than on the needless distractions that have become widespread in our politics. I wish to assure the public that I have no disagreement with my dear elder brother, Governor Soludo, or with any governor in Nigeria. I am not seeking the office of governor in any state, and I will not seek that position again, even if the Constitution is amended. Accordingly, I appeal to governors to support whichever presidential candidate they choose while also permitting and assisting other presidential candidates and contenders for other offices to campaign freely and without interruption in their states. Ultimately, voters should be allowed to determine whom they wish to serve them. Regarding the multilateral funding inaccurately described as “debt owed by Peter Obi” in Anambra State, I wish to state unequivocally: As Governor of Anambra State, I did not approach any financial institution to borrow funds or issue a bond on behalf of the state. Indeed, at his farewell ceremony, the then Director-General of the DMO, Abraham Nwankwo, appointed me chairman and declared that, during his 10 years in office, I was the only state governor who had not approached him for a loan facility. When I left office, the Anambra State Government owed no unpaid salaries, gratuities, or pensions. Neither did it owe any contractor or supplier who had completed work that the government had verified and certified. Regarding development financing from the World Bank, these are concessionary development-support funds secured by the Federal Government for states selected by it to address specific needs. Repayment is spread over 25 to 30 years. The Anambra State Government must therefore differentiate among three separate figures: the total amount approved for the multiyear development program; the amount Anambra State actually drew during my tenure; and the funding balance outstanding when I handed over on 17 March 2014. The government has combined these distinct categories, added them together, and described the resulting US$123.77 million as “loans left by Peter Obi.” That is an incorrect application of public-sector accounting. The eight facilities identified were primarily World Bank and IFAD development programs negotiated by the Federal Government, with participating states receiving access to the funds through subsidiary arrangements. They were not conventional commercial loans that I personally secured during my tenure. This does not suggest that Anambra had no repayment responsibilities; rather, each facility must be examined in light of its approval, effectiveness, drawdown, and repayment record. The clearest contradiction appears in the government’s own figures. It states that the original facilities amounted to approximately US$123.77 million and that US$92.35 million remained outstanding in June 2026. However, the DMO’s published records showed Anambra’s total external debt at approximately US$18 million when I began my tenure in March 2006, about US$30 million in March 2014, when I left office, and approximately US$45.15 million as of 31 December 2014, nine months after my departure. The Anambra State Government must therefore clarify how a state whose recorded external debt was about US$30 million in March 2014 and US$45.15 million in December 2014 could supposedly have inherited US$123.77 million from Peter Obi, who left office in March of that same year.

DISCLAIMER: Fake Letter Circulating in My Name My attention has been drawn to a fake letter circulating on social media, purportedly written by me to His Majesty, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, concerning political and financial matters in Anambra State. This document is entirely false, malicious, and a fabrication by mischievous elements aimed at misleading the public. Furthermore, the signature appended to the letter is completely forged.  I urge the public and media to disregard this spurious publication. My focus remains steadfastly on issues of national development, accountability, and building a better future for our people - never on cheap fabrications. -PO

A New Nigeria Across Borders: My Visit to Italy As part of my ongoing visits to several countries in continuation of my consultations, meetings, and constructive exchanges of ideas on national rebirth, I arrived in Italy this morning. I had the privilege of engaging with key stakeholders and leaders. We held fruitful discussions on economic collaboration, institutional development, and matters critical to Nigeria’s progress, with a particular focus on the immense potential of our vast youthful population. During these various meetings, I reiterated our core conviction to move Nigeria from consumption to production through sustained investments in education, healthcare, and enterprise development. We must build a functional society where young people are given genuine opportunities to prosper. A nation that values its talent must reward competence, character, and integrity over criminality, connections, and nepotism. Though our national obstacles are immense, the collective capacity and resilience of our people are infinitely greater. Leaving Italy tonight, I remain encouraged by the ideas shared and the collective determination of both the international community and our citizens everywhere to see Nigeria work for everyone. A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO