Following the rebuttal of Nigeria President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as
the sixth richest African president, RichestLifestyle.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.
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