Former President Goodluck
Jonathan says he has no regret conceding the presidential election of 2015 to
President Muhammadu Buhari.
Jonathan who was the incumbent at
the time polled 12,853,162 votes – 2.5 million less than – Buhari’s 15,424,921
votes.
He made a historic call to
Buhari, before the final collation of results, conceding the election.
Responding to a question on if he regrets conceding the election in 2015, considering some unsavory
developments in the past four years, the former president said he has no
regrets for his action because it was a sacrifice for Nigeria’s democracy.
“Let me thank the young man
(Fredrick Nwabufo) from Nigeria for asking me that direct question. Let me put
it very clearly. If I have the opportunity in a similar circumstance, I will do
exactly the same thing,” he said at the constitutional term limits summit in
Naimey, Niger.
“I always say that if you want to
take a public office you should be ready to make personal sacrifices. If you
are not ready to help people, then you have no business going into politics.
“What we should also know the
process of building a society. People die in the process of a building a
society.
“I have no regret up to this
time, no matter the circumstances, I have no regret because what I did will
continue to shape political discussions, not only in Nigeria but across the
continent.
“Some people may not appreciate
it, but as we continue to strengthen democracy, people will begin to look at
conducts that are acceptable and some that are not.
“If the little contribute I have
made will help to improve our democracy in the country and on continent, yes, I
will do the same thing again.
“Some people raise the issue of
people around the president, how do you manage them because there is the
tendency for such people to influence the president negatively.
“A classical example is what
happened in the Gambia. There was a former military head of state who became a
civilian president. He now encouraged election. When that election was to take
place, people thought he would manipulate the system. Somehow he lost the
election, and the voting margin was very narrow, but he conceded that election.
“But the chairman of the
political party that won the election issued a statement threatening to probe
Jammeh. And the man was afraid. ‘ I’m still sitting here and they want to probe
me already. Ok let’s fight’. He said he was no longer going to accept defeat.
“So people around a president can
really cause crisis. Remember in my book, during that transition period people
around wanted to collapse the beautiful thing we were doing.
“Buhari and I were in talks. And
when the issue came up, I called him and we resolved it and we moved on. I
agree, people around a president can make one suggestion or the other that can
influence him negatively.
“People like that will always be
there. But a president must be ready to resist from being pushed to a direction
they don’t want to go.”
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