Former President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed the recent military intervention in Guinea-Bissau as anything but a coup, insisting that authorities must publish the country’s election results without delay.
Jonathan, who led the West African Elders Forum Election Observation Mission to the poll, said the incident troubled him more deeply than the moment he conceded defeat to the late President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Speaking with reporters yesterday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, after returning aboard an Ivorian aircraft amid concerns for his safety, Jonathan described the events in Bissau as a “ceremonial coup”.
“What happened in Guinea-Bissau was not a coup. For want of a better term, I would call it a ceremonial coup,” he said.
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According to him, the confusion began when President Umaro Embaló himself announced that a coup was underway, even as he continued to make phone calls and grant interviews claiming he had been arrested.
“I’m a Nigerian; I know how heads of state are treated during a real coup. Who is fooling who?” Jonathan asked. “What happened in Guinea-Bissau is disturbing for those of us who believe in democracy. I felt more pain than the day I called Buhari to congratulate him after losing as a sitting president.”
Jonathan said the mission was expecting the electoral commission to announce the final tallies when Embaló suddenly declared that the military had taken over.
“But from all indications, nobody arrested him,” he said.
He urged ECOWAS and the African Union to uphold the integrity of the process by releasing the authentic results gathered by their officials across the regions.
“They have the results. They cannot change them,” he stressed. “They must announce the winner. The world deserves to know who won that election.”
Jonathan also called for the immediate release of opposition candidate Fernando Dias, saying the politician had committed no offence.
