By Abiola Olawale
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has described the recent military coup in Guinea-Bissau, which halted a nearly completed electoral process, as a deeper personal blow than his own 2015 presidential election defeat.
In a statement following his evacuation from the West African nation where he was serving as an election observer, Jonathan stated that the abrupt disruption of democracy in Guinea-Bissau “disturbed” him more than the day he conceded power to his successor, late President Muhammadu Buhari, nine years ago.
Jonathan made this known while speaking to the press on Saturday.
He said: “What happened in Guinea-Bissau is quite disturbing to me, a person who believes in democracy. In fact, I feel more pain than the day I called Buhari to congratulate him when I lost the election as a sitting president.
“I have been quite particular about Guinea-Bissau. As a sitting president, then, Guinea-Bissau was in crisis. It started around 2012. In 2011, we had to go physically and work with them and make sure that the 2013 elections were conducted.”
He described the situation in Guinea-Bissau as bizarre, arguing that it did not fit the usual pattern of a military coup.
Jonathan said President Umaro Embaló’s early announcement of his own “arrest,” while still using his phone to speak to international media, raised questions about the credibility of the claim.
According to him, the Guinea-Bissau elections were peaceful as he cited reports from ECOWAS, AU, and other observer missions.
He expressed concern that while results were being collated, Embaló announced that a coup had taken place and that he had been detained, even though evidence suggested he was never arrested.
“It is painful for me that President Embaló was the one announcing a military takeover of the government. It is totally unacceptable.
“What happened in Guinea-Bissau, I would not call it a coup; it was not a coup. For lack of a better word, I will say it was a ceremonial coup because it was President Embaló who announced the coup before the military later came up to address the world that they were in charge of the government.
“Embaló had already announced that there was a coup, which is strange. Not only announcing the coup, but Embaló, while the coup took place, was using his phone and addressing media organisations across the world that he had been arrested. I’m a Nigerian close to 70 and I know how they keep Heads of State when a coup takes place.
“They cannot be playing pranks; nobody should call others fools. There is no way there will be a military coup at a time when they were about to announce election results, and the president was the person who announced the coup. It doesn’t happen anywhere,” Jonathan said.
The former president advised against engaging the military in a battle to take back power and called on ECOWAS and the AU to release the full election results.
Jonathan also called for the release of the main opposition leader, Fernando Dias, from military custody, insisting that he did not commit any offence.
