Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo has challenged former governor Peter Obi to account for his contributions to the Igbo people, accusing politicians of returning during election seasons to appeal to the emotions of voters without adequately addressing the region’s development challenges.

Soludo made the remarks while questioning Obi’s political record and drawing attention to the persistent erosion menace in Anambra, which he said remained a major challenge requiring sustained intervention.

“Ask him, since he has been in politics, what has he brought for the Igbos?” the governor said, according to a report by Spy Nigeria.

He specifically questioned Obi’s contribution to addressing erosion, asking why the problem remained widespread in Anambra despite Obi’s years in politics and his previous tenure as governor of the state.

The governor also took aim at what he described as an election-season appeal to the emotions of voters, arguing that political support should be tied to tangible development and broader benefits for the people.

“Then, when it’s time for election, you come and start playing with our emotions and still want us to waste our votes on you and remain where we are,” Soludo said.

He subsequently declared that he expected the 2027 election to produce a different political response from voters in the South-East.

“It won’t happen again. 2027 will be different. We Igbos will get our own share this time around by voting right,” he said.

The remarks come amid a separate dispute between Soludo’s administration and Obi over financial obligations allegedly inherited from previous administrations in Anambra.

The state government has released details of loans and other liabilities it says were associated with previous administrations, including Obi’s tenure, while Obi has rejected the claims and maintained that he left office without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or contractor debts.

Obi has also challenged the Anambra government to identify any person or contractor he owed when he left office in 2014, saying he would reconsider his 2027 presidential campaign if the administration could establish that he left such obligations.

The former governor has separately disputed the state government’s account of an ecological fund, insisting that more than N2.13 billion was left intact for erosion intervention. The Anambra government has disputed that account and said records from the bank account cited by Obi did not support his claim.

The competing positions have increasingly turned the relationship between the two former Anambra governors into a public political and financial dispute, with the disagreement now extending beyond the state’s books to questions about political representation and development in the South-East.

With both men positioned differently ahead of the 2027 presidential contest, their latest exchange places Obi’s record in Anambra and his wider political contribution to the Igbo people at the centre of an increasingly public debate.