A former career diplomat, Ambassador Godknows Igali, has has that former president Goodluck Jonathan is the poorest of all Nigerian leaders in recent years.
The diplomat also described Jonathan as the poorest former leader in Africa. Speaking during an interactive session with journalists, Igali said is still struggling to settle some of his 2015 election liabilities.
He said despite various allegations against the immediate past president and his associates, Jonathan left office as a fulfilled man.
Igali said: “Am glad that some of you Journalists are privileged to know where he (Jonathan) lives and where he has his private offices in this country. I do not think president Jonathan can be considered a very rich man. “You must realize that none of those corruption allegations has been personally linked to him. Jonathan is not a rich man, take it from me.
He may be comfortable but not rich. But l know that his pension as a former president is enough to take care of him,” Igali said. The former diplomat also who was also a permanent secretary of ministries of power and water resources said the former president is a modest man.
He said Jonathan’s lifestyle is humble and worthy of emulation. “Indeed Jonathan is still struggling to pay some election liabilities from 2015 till today.
Despite all the stories of flying billions, Jonathan borrowed money to prosecute some aspects of his election and he is struggling in different ways to meet up. There’s a lot of untruths that is being said about him, but l believe history will be very fair to him.
He is a very simple man. His background and lifestyle are very simple. He is not jingoistic. “Thank God some of you guys know where he has an office and where he lives in Maitama.
Which former president of Nigeria lives in that kind of place? President Jonathan’s parlour in his Maitama house can not accommodate more than ten persons. “Look at his dinning table, it is like any other house in Maitama.
The only way you will know that a former president of this country is living there is the presence of security men and which he is entitled to as a former president,” Igali added.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had made a move to recover $250 million from Abacha loot was illegally withdrawn barely two months to the end of Jonathan’s administration in 2015. A
source within the anti-graft agency says former minister of finance, Okonjo-Iweala, needs to make clarifications on the legality of the withdrawal of the $250 million.
The EFCC also revealed why former secretary to the government of the federation Anyim Pius Anyim was accused of corruption.
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