Former President Goodluck Jonathan has described the recent military takeover in Guinea Bissau as more painful than his 2015 presidential election loss to Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking in a video interview, Jonathan said he was deeply troubled by the events, which unfolded while he was in Guinea Bissau as part of the West African Elders Forum to observe the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
He and other observers were reportedly stranded after the military announced control of the government.
“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,” Jonathan said.
He recalled his previous engagement with Guinea Bissau, noting, “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 made sure that the 2013 elections were conducted.”
Jonathan also questioned the unusual nature of the coup, saying, “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 urged ECOWAS and the African Union to release the full election results and called for the release of opposition leader Fernando Dias from military custody.
