Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday met with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja to give a detailed account of developments surrounding the Guinea Bissau election.
Jonathan said he visited to provide Tinubu with first hand information ahead of an expected ECOWAS engagement. He noted that it is the tradition for former presidents involved in regional matters to brief the Nigerian leader on their return.
He told journalists that what many had described as a coup in the country was, in his view, not an actual coup but “a ceremonial coup” staged by the head of state. According to him, the electoral process had almost been concluded and the outcome was already known before the crisis.
He said, “I came this evening to brief Mr President what happened. That is the tradition for former President. All these regional and Continental issues whenever you are involved when you get back home you have to brief the President because ECOWAS leaders will meet, I will not be there, so he will be able to get first hand information.”
Jonathan explained that the arrest of the main opposition candidate was unjustified, insisting that the candidate had not committed any offence. “The key thing is that the election was concluded, collation of results was almost concluded, in fact the results are known and the key thing is that the winner of that election must be announced.”
He urged ECOWAS to intervene by engaging the leadership of Guinea Bissau and insisting on the release of the detained candidate. “First, for them to release the opposition man because the man has not committed any offense, he didn’t announce himself as the winner of the election. If he had done that they would say it’s a treasonable offence, so there is no reason to arrest him.”
Jonathan added that Africa is weary of political instability. He maintained that announcing the rightful winner was the only way forward. “We are tired of this in Africa. Everyday is negative story. What happened in Guinea Bissau is not what some people would call palace coup. It was not a palace coup. This was not even a palace coup. I was looking for the appropriate word to describe it, I could not get, that is why I called it a ceremonial coup.”
He said the situation was “a ceremonial coup conducted by the Head of State himself,” and advised that once the military agrees to the election outcome, the winner should be inaugurated.
