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Anambra politics has produced its share of drama, but few fights raise as many eyebrows as the one currently playing out between Peter Obi and Charles Soludo. To think it all started with a podcast comment.

According to Finance Commissioner Izuchukwu Okafor, Soludo’s government is still clearing debts left behind by Obi’s administration. Obi, speaking from Washington, D.C., counter-insisted he left office owing nobody: no salaries, no pensions, no contractor fees. He thus threw down a bold challenge: find one person he owed, and he’d end his 2027 presidential run that same day.

In response, Soludo’s camp released what it called official debt records from Obi’s tenure, a move that predictably set his supporters off, accusing the administration of running a smear campaign dressed up as fiscal transparency.

This is nothing new. Soludo has gone on air to say the state assets and investments Obi frequently cites as proof of his prudence are, in his words, “worth next to nothing” now. He’s also taken aim at Obi’s famous savings culture, arguing that stockpiling state funds while people struggled with poverty was more optics than good governance.

Meanwhile, publicly, both men insist there’s no bad blood. Soludo has called it a “fundamental political difference” and says they still talk privately. But strip away the diplomacy, and the motives become clearer.

Soludo is heading toward re-election and needs Anambrarians to believe his performance stacks up despite the financial mess he claims to have inherited. He also needs to chip away at the influence of Obi’s “Obidient” movement, which reshaped the state’s political map in 2023, while building his own reputation as the sharper economist ahead of any future national ambitions.

Obi, for his part, is protecting the one thing his national brand is built on: a reputation for discipline and financial integrity. Losing that credibility could unravel his entire case for a serious 2027 run, since a presidential bid built on frugality means little if his own backyard turns against the story he’s been telling.