Former Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday dismissed the military takeover in Guinea-Bissau as an unusual, optics-driven intervention, calling it “a ceremonial coup” and urging West African and continental bodies to release the stalled election results.
Jonathan led the West African Elders Forum election observation team and was in Bissau to monitor Sunday’s presidential and legislative polls when the political crisis erupted.
The crisis began a day after President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and opposition contender Fernando Dias each claimed victory, despite the absence of a formal declaration by the electoral commission. Both sides insisted they had surpassed the 50% threshold required to win outright.
Amid the competitive claims, soldiers took control of critical institutions, paused the electoral process and announced they would run the government “until further notice”.
The development revived memories of an earlier allegation by the presidency that it had quashed a coup plot before the campaign, in which Mamadu Ture, deputy chief of staff, accused Brigadier-General Daba Nawalna of orchestrating the supposed plan.
But the sequence of events raised doubts for Jonathan, who argued that the country’s account of the takeover defied the typical anatomy of a coup.
“Specifically, what happened in Guinea-Bissau was not a coup; maybe, for want of a better word, I would say it was a ceremonial coup. It is the president, President Umaro Embaló, that announced the coup,” Jonathan told reporters in Abuja.
“Who is fooling who?” he asked, expressing disbelief that a leader could claim to be detained while maintaining open access to the press.
“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,” he said, adding: “I’m a Nigerian, and I know how heads of state are treated when there’s a coup.”
Jonathan said the election process itself had been orderly, affirming that it was “peaceful, well conducted and properly supervised” before its abrupt interruption.
He insisted the election results had already been collated across all nine regions, observed in real time by officials of ECOWAS and the African Union.
“They cannot change those results. They should tally all those results and announce,” he said. “They cannot force the military out. They must announce, let the world know who won that election. And they owe the world that responsibility.”
Jonathan also demanded the immediate release of Dias, saying the opposition figure had “not committed any offence.” He described reports of his own delegation being trapped during the crisis, confirming he was evacuated Thursday via a special flight back to Nigeria.
Reflecting on the gravity of the situation, Jonathan said the disruption reminded him of the “dark days” from 2011 to 2014, adding in frustration: “I feel more pained than the day I called Buhari to congratulate him when I lost as a sitting president.”
He questioned Embaló’s alleged vulnerability, arguing the president—by virtue of being a former ECOWAS chair and retired senior officer—should have been positioned to “prevent any coup” rather than be at the centre of an event that derailed an election.
“He should be the person that can prevent any coup in Guinea-Bissau. I don’t expect a coup that would remove him from office,” he said.
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