President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria has claimed the top spot among a parade of the world’s most ruthless, corrupt leaders. 

The infamous award came after the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project called for citizens worldwide to nominate individuals worthy of taking the spotlight for their roles in advancing criminal activities while aggravating poverty.  

The group, which coordinates a network of investigative journalists and activists around the world, said the Nigerian leader came third after a vote by participants. 

While Kenyan president William Ruto scored the most votes, Mr Tinubu was listed as number three, following former Indonesian president Joko Widodo. 

Organisers nonetheless awarded the main Person of the Year label to Bashar al-Assad, the recently ousted leader of Syria, who fled to Russia earlier this month after spending decades plundering the Middle-Eastern country. 

“The judges acknowledge the importance of public interest and outrage at corruption,” organisers at OCCRP said. 

Mr Tinubu, 72, was at the top for his role in entrenching a regime of corruption in Nigeria. He was the governor of Lagos for eight years between 1999 and 2003, a period he used to amass enormous wealth for himself and his family. 

Following his assumption of office as Nigeria’s president in May 2023, Mr Tinubu quickly moved to award a multitrillion-naira road project to a company run by his son. The proposed Lagos-Calabar route is Nigeria’s most ambitious infrastructure project to date, and the controversy did little to allay widespread fears that Mr Tinubu would raid Nigeria’s treasury as he did in Lagos the prior decades. 

Mr Tinubu’s history as a cocaine dealer in Chicago also helped inform participants in the nomination process for the OCCRP ranking, submissions showed. He was also rocked by allegations of certificate forgery shortly after he was inaugurated. 

He strongly denied all allegations of corruption. 

A spokesperson for Mr Tinubu did not immediately answer a request seeking comments about his unveiling as a globally acclaimed organised crime personality from Peoples Gazette on Tuesday morning.