What happened in Guinea-Bissau wasn’t a coup, election results must be announced – Goodluck Jonathan

Former Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan says the military intervention in Guinea-Bissau’s political crisis was not the typical coup but “a ceremonial coup.” This is as he insisted that the election must results be announced.

Jonathan feels the coup was orchestrated by the out gone President Umaro Embalo to deny the opposition of victory.

The former president was in Guinea-Bissau as head of the West African Elders Forum Election Observation Mission to monitor the country’s presidential and legislative elections held last Sunday.

But while observer missions from the African Union, Economic Community of West African States, and other bodies were still carrying out their duties, the military seized power.

The development left the former Bayelsa State governor and his team stranded and raised concerns over his safety.

Jonathan, who was later evacuated from Guinea-Bissau and arrived in Nigeria on Thursday, said the incident unsettled him.

Speaking in a video interview after returning to Nigeria, Jonathan said the development was particularly troubling because of his long-standing involvement in restoring democracy to the West African country.

“What happened in Guinea-Bissau, I wouldn’t call it a coup. It was not a coup. For want of a better word, I would say maybe because it was a ceremonial coup. It was the president, President Embalo, who announced the coup before, later, the military men came up to address the world that they were in charge of everywhere.

“Embalo had already announced the coup, which is strange, not only announcing the coup, but Embalo, while the coup took place, was using his phone and addressing media organisations across the world that he had been arrested,” he said.

The former Bayelsa governor also said what happened in Guinea-Bissau was quite disturbing to him as a person who believes in democracy.

“I’m a Nigerian close to 70, and I know how they keep heads of state when a coup takes place. Recently, I was a mediator in Mali, [an] ECOWAS mediator in Mali and within that period, we had a military coup.

“The military doesn’t take over governments, and the sitting president that they overthrew will be allowed to be addressing press conferences and announcing that he has been arrested. Who is fooling who?

Jonathan described the Guinea-Bissau elections as peaceful and called for the release of the results.

“The elections were done peacefully. We were in the field. I was a part of the West African Elders Forum. Normally, we are not core observers, so we didn’t deploy observation teams across what we observed within the south, the capital and the neighbouring settlements.

“But during the meeting of all heads of observation missions, and all the observers gave their accounts, nobody gave something different. The elections were peaceful, the counting of results at the polling units [was] peacefully done — the conduct of the electoral officials, the security, the party agents, the voters.

“It was a good election, and one expected the results to be announced

“And when they were almost through, and we’re all waiting for the result to be announced, then Embalo announced that there was a coup, that they had taken over, and they had arrested him.

“But from all indications, nobody arrested him. My conviction is that, and my charge to ECOWAS and AU is that they must announce that result,” he said.

On Monday, President Embaló, who was seeking re-election, and Fernando Dias, his key challenger, each declared victory while official results had not been announced by the electoral commission.

Both camps insisted that their candidates had crossed the 50 percent threshold required to win outright.

Shortly afterwards, soldiers seized control of key institutions, suspended the electoral process and announced that they would administer the state “until further notice”.

The episode followed an earlier claim by the government that it had averted a coup attempt ahead of the campaign season.

Mamadu Ture, Deputy Chief of Staff, had accused Daba Nawalna, a Brigadier-General and head of a military training centre, of masterminding the alleged plot.

However, Embaló later told Jeune Afrique, a French-language weekly news magazine, that he had been arrested in his office at the presidential palace at about 1 pm.

He said the soldiers did not use force and described the incident as a coup.