Libel threat: President Jonathan removed from list of Africa's richest presidents

What were they thinking in the first place? Or did President Goodluck Jonathan’s threat really get them shaking? The publishers of RichestLifestyle.com have removed President Jonathan from their just released list of Richest African Presidents 2014.

The US-based website had ranked President Jonathan as the sixth richest African President with a net worth of $100 million dollars.  But in a swift reaction, the President denied being worth that much and threatened legal action against the publishers.

Running through the list now on the site, it was discovered that Jonathan’s name had been removed with the following message displaying there:
“This article has been removed. The net worth was evaluated by Celebrity Net Worth”.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati said on Wednesday that the “the totally unwarranted inclusion of President Jonathan in the publication titled “Africa’s Richest Presidents 2014″ is another attempt to unjustifiably portray the President as a corrupt leader and incite public disaffection against him”.

He said further: “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 statement also reads: “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   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”.


Below is the original list released by the website: