President Goodluck Jonathan characterized the reports including him in the list of top richest presidents of Africa as baseless and threatened to sue the responsible media.
Goodluck Jonathan
According to Premium Times, speaking October 8 on the issue, the country leader described the reports as an attempt to incite Nigerian against him.
It would be recalled that the US-based website Richest Lifestyle ranked Goodluck Jonathan as 6th richest African president with the wealth worth about $100 million. The information went viral immediately and started circulating in the Nigerian media.
Reacting to the development, the president, speaking through his spokesman Reuben Abati, demanded a retraction of the “libellous” publication and an apology, threatening to initiate legal action within and outside Nigeria.
“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 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.”
While President Jonathan has never publicly declared his asset, it is unclear how Richest Lifestyle arrived at its figure of $100 million. The report did not contain explanation, neither did it provide details of the alleged analysis.
The Nigerian officials’ statement continued:
“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.”
Abati insisted that the figure given in the report was far from true adding that the aim of the publications was to tarnish Jonathan’s image.
“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.”

He should be richer than that.