“He was embarrassed by the fact that a foreign internet channel would tell a blatant lie and Nigerian channels would pick it up and begin to repeat the lie,” he said, as that necessitated the move by the Presidency to put the records straight.
He noted that President Jonathan was aware that what the “copycat” Nigerian media organisations tried to do was to portray him as being corrupt along with the other listed African leaders.
He stated, “The President does not have 100million dollars either in terms of assets or in liquid cash,” adding that the President has always declared his assets every year as required by the law.
On the view that the President did not disclose his assets for Nigerians to know, Abati argued that there is no law that mandates a public official to publicly declare his assets except only to the Code of Conduct Bureau, and whoever is in doubts could verify this.
Asked whether he would consider the President to be rich or wealthy, Abati said, “I don’t know, that’s not part of my job.
“This President is not thinking in terms of wealth, in terms of riches, he is thinking in terms of what he can do for the Nigerian people.”
He said that the priority for President Jonathan has always been to make Nigeria better, as commitment to service and to the oath he has taken is what defines his person and his office as the Nigerian President.
Abati further insisted that the website that published the story knew that they were up to mischief, having pulled down the story and then claiming that they got the story from another website.
