I got this from Chris Blattman’s blog. If you’re interested in Majority World poverty and development, he’s an engaging and very interesting source. Check it out.
The net worth of all 43 U.S. presidents collectively – from Washington to Obama – totals $2.7 billion.
…The net worth of individual African presidents from banditry: Abacha (Nigeria), $5 billion; al-Bashir (Sudan), $7 bn; Babangida (Nigeria), $8 bn; Mobutu (Zaire, now Congo DR), over $10 bn; Mubarak (Egypt), over $40 bn; Khaddafi (Libya), over $60 bn.
According to Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, corrupt African leaders have stolen at least $140 billion from their people in the decades since independence
Tags: Abacha, African presidents, al-Bashir, Khaddafi, money in politics, Mubarak, Obama, U.S. presidents, Washington
March 14, 2012 at 12:05 am |
God bless America.
April 5, 2012 at 8:52 pm |
Hmm, maybe in light of what has happened since the liberation of various African countries, western European colonial guilt is a bit exaggerated….
An interesting flip side to this would be to measure the net worth of all U.S. residents since G. Washington’s presidency vs. the net worth of all Africans over the last two-plus centuries….while the African leaders in places like Nigeria, Sudan, Congo profited from ill-gotten gains, their people suffered. I suppose the comparatively low net worth of all the U.S. presidents is a testimony to a system of governance that by comparison to anywhere in Africa seems remarkably fair.
On the other hand, just because an African president got rich, it doesn’t automatically mean that his people suffered for it. This is especially so for Libya, whose rich oil reserves not only put a lot of money in Gaddafi’s pocket but also provided Gaddafi the money to help greatly improve (materially speaking) the lives of Libyans…(e.g., under Gaddafi’s reign, literacy rose from 10% to 90%, life expectancy from 57 to 77 years, infant mortality dropped from 125/1000 to 15/1000, there was free education, free healthcare, financial assistance for housing, establishment of equal rights for women and blacks, a country that was DEBT FREE, etc.)