FACT CHECK: Did Peter Obi Spend Eight Years as Anambra Governor Without Building a Single School?

BY: Arinze Chijioke

Claim: 

A graphic circulating on social media claims that Peter Obi is the only governor and political office holder in Nigeria’s history who did not build a single school during his eight years as governor of Anambra State.

Verdict: MISLEADING. 

Full Text

On October 31, an X user, @HighChiefOkoro, shared a graphic featuring a photograph of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi alongside the claim: 

“The only governor and political office holder in the history of Nigeria who didn’t build a single school for 8 years as a governor of Anambra State is Peter Obi.” “Go and verify he said, we have now verified,”. 

The post had attracted more than 7,500 views, 160 comments and 146 reposts on X at the time of this report.

Peter Obi served as governor of Anambra State from March 2006 to March 2014. During his tenure, the former governor prioritised education under the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), aligning state policies with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The debate over whether Obi built any schools during his tenure has resurfaced multiple times, especially after critics questioned his administration’s performance in education. On April 20, 2024, former presidential aide Reno Omokri appeared on the Mic On Podcast, hosted by Channels Television journalist Seun Okinbaloye, challenging supporters of the former Anambra governor to name one school built by Obi during his 8-year tenure and get $10,000.

In May 2025, NewsVerifier Africa published a fact-check examining the claim that Obi did not build any school or hospital during his tenure. It found that his administration concentrated on rehabilitating and upgrading existing educational infrastructure rather than establishing new schools. It also documented classroom construction and other educational interventions. 

In a post on X on April 28, 2025, Umar Sani, Spokesperson, PDP Presidential Campaign Council 2019, said, “Critics who accuse Mr Peter Obi of not constructing new schools during his tenure as Governor of Anambra State fail to appreciate the extent of decay he inherited in both missionary and state-owned educational institutions,”.

Verification: 

A review of available reports shows that the claim contains an element of truth but does not accurately represent the full picture of the former governor’s interventions in the education sector.

On April 24, 2024, four days after Omokri’s challenge, Obi acknowledged during a press conference in Abuja that he did not build new schools while serving as governor. Responding to criticism over his record, he explained that his administration prioritised rehabilitating existing schools and improving the quality of education.

The debate resurfaced in July 2026 when Obi appeared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, again hosted by Okinbaloye. Asked whether he had built any schools during his tenure, Obi referred to the Igbariam campus of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University.

Explaining the development of the campus, he said: “Seun, I cut the grass. What I mean, it was a bush. I levelled the bush.”

He argued that his administration developed the campus from an undeveloped site, citing it as evidence of its investment in educational infrastructure.

However, the absence of newly established schools does not mean that his administration undertook no school construction or infrastructure projects.

A July 19, 2017 report by THISDAY, which reviewed Obi’s achievements in office, stated that the former governor constructed classroom blocks, distributed over 700 buses to secondary schools, provided computers and internet facilities, and installed boreholes across Anambra State.

Similarly, a February 2018 policy assessment titled Anambra State Education Rebirth – The Peter Obi Model, authored by Chiagozie Udeh, Izuchukwu J. Okoye and Oseloka H. Obaze, documented infrastructure investments during the administration. The assessment reported that in 2012, the state had projected the construction of 4,000 new classrooms, of which 1,000 had been completed, with another 1,000 scheduled to commence later that year.

It further documented that, in 2013, the state government distributed more than ₦5.7 billion to educational institutions and mission schools for the renovation and rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings and the construction of new ones in primary and junior secondary schools.

The assessment also reported that more than 500 schools benefited from laboratory rehabilitation and equipment programmes, while over 450 schools received computers by the first quarter of 2014.

In November 2013, Channels Television reported that Obi presented ₦1.5 billion to 150 public and private schools for infrastructure upgrades under the State Education Programme Investment Project (SEPIP), a World Bank-supported initiative.

These records indicate that although Obi acknowledged that he did not establish new schools, his administration undertook construction and rehabilitation of educational infrastructure in existing schools.

Did Obi establish a new school during his tenure?

The distinction between constructing a new school and constructing new classroom blocks within existing schools is important.

Obi’s April 2024 statement supports the position that he did not build new schools. However, available records show that his administration financed and undertook construction of new classroom infrastructure in existing educational institutions.

Consequently, the claim that he did not build a single school cannot reasonably be extended to mean that no school construction took place during his administration.

Was he the only governor in Nigeria’s history not to build a school?

The graphic made an additional claim that Obi was the only governor and political office holder in Nigeria’s history to have spent eight years in office without building a school.

However, it did not provide any comparative evidence involving other governors who served two terms in Nigeria’s 36 states. Establishing such a claim would require examining the school construction records of governors across different administrations and states.

No comprehensive historical record establishing that Obi was the only governor to have had such a record was identified in the course of this fact-check.

Conclusion:

Peter Obi acknowledged that he did not construct new schools during his eight-year tenure as governor of Anambra State. However, records show that his administration constructed classroom blocks, rehabilitated existing school buildings, equipped educational institutions and funded other infrastructure projects in the education sector.

The graphic’s assertion that he did not build a single school is therefore misleading because it fails to distinguish between establishing entirely new schools and constructing new infrastructure within existing ones.

Furthermore, its claim that he was the only governor in Nigeria’s history to have done so is not supported by comparative historical evidence.