A United States based website known as Richest Lifestyle had given an overview of top 10 richest Presidents in Africa in an article made available online. Out of the 10, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria emerged the 6th richest African president with a reported net-worth of $100 million. The website, was unable to substantiate the basis for its ranking.
The Presidency retracted the claim on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 in a statement issued by Reuben Abati, Senior Special Advisor to the President on Media and Publicity.
Abati said that the Presidency noted with ”consternation the listing of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by Richest Lifestyle and 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.”
He went on to say, “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 RichestLifestyle.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.”
Below is the list presented by the website.
- Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola – Net Worth: $20 Billion
- Mohammed VI of Morocco – Net Worth: $2.5 Billion
- Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea – $600 Million
- Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya – Net Worth: $500 Million
- Paul Biya of Cameroon – Net Worth: $200 Million
- President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria –Net Worth : $100 Million
- King Mswati III of Swaziland – Net Worth: $100 Million (The monarch shares the number 6 spot with President Jonathan)
- Idriss Deby of Chad – Net Worth: $50 Million
- Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe – Net Worth: $10 Million
