Trending Story

No Regrets Surrendering Power In 2015, Says Jonathan

Per Second NewsOctober 5, 2019288

Driven by his passion for democracy, former President Goodluck Jonathan went down the memory lane five years after and said he had no iota of regrets conceding defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

“I have no regret for conceding to Buhari up to this moment.

“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.

Jonathan, the incumbent 14th president of the country, was responding to a question by TheCable on whether he regrets conceding the election in 2015, considering some unsavory developments in the past four years.

He declared: “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 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.”

The PDP helmsman believed that if the “little contribution” he made will help to improve democracy in the country and on the continent, he would “do the same thing again”.

“Some people raise the issue of people around the president, how do you manage them because there is a 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,” Jonathan said.

Recalling how it was handled, Jonathan said:“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.”