‘Who is fooling who?’-Jonathan opens up on Guinea-Bissau coup

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has cast doubt on the  military takeover in Guinea-Bissau, insisting that authorities should release the outcome of Sunday’s presidential election.

Jonathan, who headed an international observer mission to the country, became stranded as events unfolded but was later evacuated and returned to Nigeria on Thursday.

Addressing journalists on Friday, the former Nigerian leader recounted what he witnessed and questioned whether the episode amounted to a genuine 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,” he said.

“Before later, a military man came up to address the world that they were in charge of everywhere. Embaló had already announced the 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 mean, I’m a Nigerian close to 70 years, and I know how they keep heads of state when a coup takes place.

“Recently, I was a mediator in Mali, and within that period, we had a military coup. Militaries don’t take over government and the sitting president that they overthrow would be allowed to be addressing press conferences and announcing that they are being arrested.

“Who is fooling who? Basically, what happened in Guinea-Bissau is quite disturbing to me, who believes in democracy. In fact, I feel more pains than the day I called Buhari to congratulate him when I lost the election.”

Jonathan explained that results from all nine regions had already been compiled and were awaiting final declaration when Embaló announced a coup.

He urged ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) to uphold democratic standards by releasing the tallies.

“When they were almost through and we were all waiting for the results to be announced, then Embaló announced that there was a coup, that they had taken over, they had arrested him,” Jonathan said.

“But from all indications, nobody arrested him. My conviction is that, and my charge to ECOWAS and AU is that they must announce the results.

“They have the results because AU and ECOWAS officials were at all the regions when the results were collated. They cannot change those results. They should tally all those results and announce. They cannot force the military out. They must announce, let the world know who won that election. And they owe the world that responsibility.”

He further expressed concern that Embaló — a former ECOWAS chairman and retired military officer — would be linked to an incident capable of derailing the country’s electoral process.

“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.