Following the rebuttal of Nigeria President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as
the sixth richest African president, R ichestLifestyle.com has removed
the name of President Jonathan from the controversial list.
No reason was given on the website for the removal but it may not be
unconnected to threat by the Presidency to seek legal action against
the publication.
It will be recalled that presidential spokeperson, Rueben Abati had
earlier issued a statement describing the publication as 'another
attempt to unjustifiably portray the President as a corrupt leader and
incite public disaffection against him.'.
The statement reads, The Presidency condemns the totally unwarranted
inclusion of President Jonathan in the publication titled "Africa's
Richest Presidents 2014" 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.
There has been no significant variation in the totality of his
personal assets as contained in his last declaration to the Nigerian
Code of Conduct Bureau in 2011 which, as can be verified, was a very,
very far cry from the $100 million figure now being bandied about by
Richest Lifestyle.com and other irresponsible, copy-cat publications.
The clear and unacceptable imputation of the claim that President
Jonathan is now worth about $100 Million is that the President has
corruptly enriched himself while in office which is certainly not the
case. We therefore demand a retraction and an unreserved apology from
Richest Lifestyle.com and all those who have reproduced the offensive
article. Otherwise, they should be prepared to substantiate their
libelous claims against the President in courts of law within and
outside Nigeria.
--BelieveAfrica
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