Jonathan Denounces Inclusion As 6th Richest African President

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Uncategorized Wednesday, October 8th, 2014

Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan has denounced the inclusion of his name as the 6th richest African President and demands retraction and apology.

A website, RichestLifestyle.com, in its latest ranking placed Jonathan as the 6th richest African President, with a net worth of $100 million (N16.4 billion).

In a statement, the president described the publication as baseless and libelous. In the statement issued by Dr. Reuben Abati, the president denounced the publication, describing it as another attempt to unjustifiably portray the President as a corrupt leader and incite public disaffection against him.

“We categorically assert that there is no factual basis for ranking President Jonathan as the sixth richest African Head of State with a net worth of about $100 Million U.S. Dollars. As is well known, President Jonathan has never been a businessman or entrepreneur, but a life-long public servant.

“The President has held public office since 1999 and has regularly declared his assets as required by Nigerian laws. He has had no personal income since 1999 other than his official remuneration as deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president and president which are matters of public record,” the statement said.

According to the statement, there had been no significant variation in the totality of Jonathan’s personal assets as contained in his last declaration to the Nigerian Code of Conduct Bureau in 2011 which, “as could be verified, was a very, very far cry from the $100 million figure now being bandied about by RichestLifestyle.com and other publications.”

“The clear and unacceptable imputation of the claim that President Jonathan is worth about $100 Million is that the President has corruptly enriched himself while in office which is certainly not the case,” it stated.

The president vowed to sue the website if it fails to retract the report, as it amounted to libel.

Editor’s note: In our earlier version of the story, Forbes was mentioned as the magazine that rated President Jonathan as the 6th richest president in Africa. It wasn’t Forbes, the error is regretted