Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to provide a detailed briefing on the tense political situation in Guinea-Bissau, where he served as a lead observer during the country’s recent presidential election.
Okay News reports that Jonathan described the incident widely tagged a coup as a “ceremonial coup” orchestrated by the Head of State.
Speaking with journalists after the closed-door meeting, Jonathan said it is standard practice for former presidents involved in regional or continental engagements to brief the sitting Nigerian leader, especially ahead of an expected ECOWAS leaders’ meeting.
According to Jonathan, the presidential election in Guinea-Bissau had reached an advanced stage of collation and the outcome was already known before military officers intervened and arrested the opposition candidate.
“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 must be announced,” he said.
Jonathan stressed that the arrest of the opposition candidate was unjustifiable, noting that the candidate did not declare himself winner — an action that could have amounted to treason.
“The man has not committed any offense; he didn’t announce himself as winner. So there is no reason to arrest him,” Jonathan insisted.
He explained that while international leaders cannot simply remove military actors from power due to broader implications, ECOWAS must pressure Guinea-Bissau’s authorities to uphold democratic norms.
“What I am asking the ECOWAS leadership to do is to reach out to the leadership in Guinea-Bissau. They know the right thing to do: release the opposition man, announce the results, and allow the winner to be inaugurated,” he said.
Jonathan criticised the manner in which the military intervened, rejecting comparisons to a traditional coup or palace coup.
“This was not even a palace coup. I was looking for the appropriate word to describe it and could not get one, that’s why I called it a ceremonial coup,” he said.
“It was a ceremony conducted by the Head of State himself.”
He added that Africa must put an end to recurring political instability, saying the continent is weary of “negative stories.”
Jonathan served as one of 36 high-level observers deployed by the African Union (AU), ECOWAS, and the West African Elders Forum (WAEF) to monitor the election.
