I turned down Veep position twice – Sam Jonah reveals

It has now emerged that renowned business and mining mogul, Sam Jonah, flatly rejected an offer to become the nation’s vice president on two occasions.

It is, however, unclear which president or presidential candidate in the Fourth Republic might have made that juicy offer to the highly respected entrepreneur, who received an Honourary Knighthood on the 25th of June, 2003, in recognition of his achievements as an African businessman.

Sam Jonah himself made the startling revelation in his biography, ‘Sam Jonah and the Remaking of Ashanti’ by Ayowa Taylor, excerpts of which were published in the April 2013 edition of the Africa Forbes Magazine. It is an undeniable fact that this revelation could spark some amount of controversy as debates would centre on which presidential candidate made the offer and why Sam Jonah flatly rejected such a juicy position.

However, investigations by this paper point to the fact that a presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made the offer. Sam Jonah is seen as an ally of the NPP, particularly beginning from the late nineties after he had fallen out of favour with Rawlings, who nominated him (JONAH) to be the Vice President of Ashanti Goldfields (now Anglogold Ashanti) in 1986.

The relationship between the two gentlemen degenerated as the years wore on. The estranged relationship degenerated even further to a point where former President Rawlings publicly branded the highly respected business mogul as a “common criminal.” With this apparent frosty relationship between the two gentlemen, which was public knowledge, there was no way a presidential candidate from the NDC camp was going to make a vice presidential offer to Sir Sam Jonah.

The article in the Africa Forbes Magazine highlighted some companies that Sam Jonah helped transform after he successfully supervised the $1.48 billion merger between Ashanti Goldfields and AngloGold, underlining the fact that he’s got the midas touch.

Equinox Minerals, a mining exploration company based in Zambia, was one of the companies that benefited from Sam Jonah’s abundant experience.

Equinox Minerals was at the feasibility stage when it approached Sam Jonah. Years later, in 2011, the company that had a market share capitalisation of 63.1 million in 2006 was sold to the Barrick Gold Corporation for $7.4 million.

Moto Goldmines, which also benefited from Jonah’s experience in mining, grew from a $50 Million market capitalisation company and was sold to Randgold Resources and AngloGold Ashanti in October, 2009.

Jonah currently sits on the boards of a few companies, including Vodafone Plc. He is also the founder and Chairman of Jonah Capital, a private investment holding company based in South Africa, with interests in mineral resources, real estate, agriculture, construction materials, financial services, oil and gas services.