ABIA’S DEBT BURDEN IS FALLING, AND THE FIGURES SPEAK
The official DMO numbers show that Abia’s domestic debt was ₦142.47 billion as at June 30, 2023. By December 31, 2023, it had dropped to ₦138.64 billion. By September 30, 2024, it came down further to ₦89.35 billion. And by December 31, 2025, it fell again to ₦48.41 billion. That is not propaganda. That is the DMO’s published record.
So what does that mean in plain language? It means Abia’s domestic debt fell by about ₦94.06 billion between June 2023 and December 2025. That is a reduction of roughly 66%. Even if you start from December 2023, the drop to December 2025 is still about ₦90.23 billion. Those are not small movements. Those are major reductions by any serious fiscal standard.
That is the strongest pro-Abia case: under Alex Otti, the DMO’s own data show a steady and substantial decline in Abia’s domestic debt burden. From ₦142.47 billion to ₦89.35 billion and then to ₦48.41 billion is not noise. It is measurable financial compression. It suggests tighter debt management, cleaner books, and a government that is clearly moving away from the old culture of piling up local obligations.
Now, to be fair, domestic debt is not the whole debt story. Abia’s external debt was $92.33 million at June 30, 2023 and $107.16 million at December 31, 2025. So nobody should confuse a domestic-debt victory with the complete disappearance of every liability. But that does not erase the core point: on the exact metric being discussed by the government and the DMO table being circulated, Abia has recorded a sharp and provable improvement.
So the honest pro-Abia message is this: the figures are real, the decline is real, and the improvement in domestic debt management is real. Critics can debate politics, but they cannot wish away the DMO numbers. Abia’s domestic debt did not stay flat. It did not rise. It dropped hard, and the reduction is visible line by line in the official debt tables.
AProf Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke
