Nigeria’s former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has alleged that President Umaro Embaló staged the military coup in Guinea-Bissau to avoid losing a presidential election.
Mr Jonathan said the military takeover was a “ceremonial coup” and demanded that the election results be announced.
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The former president led the West African Elders Forum Election Observation Mission to monitor Guinea-Bissau’s presidential and legislative elections held last Sunday.
He returned to Nigeria on Thursday after being evacuated from Guinea-Bissau following a military takeover.
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Speaking to journalists on Friday, he said he would not categorise the incident in the country as a conventional coup, alleging that the event was staged to derail the announcement of the election results.
He stated that no military leader would allow the ousted president to communicate with the media while being held in custody.
Mr Jonathan noted that President Umaro Embaló’s swift declaration that he had been “arrested,” despite freely speaking to international media on his phone, cast doubt on the plausibility of the claim.
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“What happened in Guinea-Bissau is quite disturbing to me, a person who believes in democracy. In fact, I feel more pain than the day I called Buhari to congratulate him when I lost the election as a sitting president.
“It is painful for me that President Embaló was the one announcing a military takeover of the government. It is totally unacceptable,” Mr Jonathan said.
“What happened in Guinea-Bissau, I would not call it a coup; it was not a coup. For lack of a better word, I will say it was a ceremonial coup because it was President Embaló who announced the coup before the military later came up to address the world that they were in charge of the government.
“Embaló had already announced that there was a 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’m a Nigerian close to 70, and I know how they keep Heads of State when a coup takes place.
“They cannot be playing pranks; nobody should call others fools. There is no way there will be a military coup at a time when they were about to announce election results, and the president was the person who announced the coup. It doesn’t happen anywhere,” Mr Jonathan added.
The coup occurred a day before the Guinea-Bissau electoral commission was to announce the winner of the presidential election conducted on Sunday.
The election pitted Mr Embalo, candidate of the Madem‑G15 party, against leading opposition candidate Fernando Dias, candidate of the Party for Social Renewal (PRS).
Mr Embalo, whose term officially ended in February, sought to be the first president in 30 years to secure a second consecutive term.
“I will be a candidate for my own succession,” Mr Embalo told reporters in March.
Shortly after the coup, Mr Embalo recounted to Jeune Afrique, a French-language weekly magazine, that soldiers detained him in his office at the presidential palace at around 1 p.m.
He said they acted without violence and tagged the incident a coup.
On Thursday, Mr Embalo’s Chief of Army Staff, Horta Inta-A, assumed power as the transitional President.
Mr Inta-A was considered close to the president, who then fled to Senegal.
The newly sworn-in Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Tomas Djassi, is also considered to be Mr Embaló’s ally.
Meanwhile, the Senegalese Prime Minister
Ousmane Sonko also described the coup as a sham.
Reuters reported that he demanded the continuation of the electoral process and, like Mr Jonathan, demanded the announcement of the results of the election.
“What happened in Guinea-Bissau was a sham. We want the electoral process to continue. The (electoral) commission must be able to declare the winner,” he was quoted to have said.
Also, the coalition supporting the main rival, Mr Dias, condemned the takeover, calling it a last-minute bid by Mr Embaló and his allies to stop the announcement of results.
They argued that the declaration of the election results would have confirmed his defeat.
UN condemns coup
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has condemned the coup in Guinea-Bissau.
Mr Guterres described the coup as an outright disregard of the “will of the people” who came out to vote for their leadership of choice just a few days before the coup.
In a post on X, Mr Guterres said he was deeply concerned by the unfolding events in the West African nation.
Mr Guterres called the turn of events in the country an unacceptable violation of democratic principles.
“I strongly condemned the coup d’état perpetrated by elements of the military & any attempt to violate constitutional order.
“Any disregard of the will of the people who peacefully cast their vote during the 23 November general elections constitutes an unacceptable violation of democratic principles.
READ ALSO: Jonathan warns of rising political rascality, urges reset of Nigeria’s leadership culture
“I reaffirm the full support of the @UN for safeguarding democracy, promoting stability, and assisting Guinea-Bissau in concluding the electoral process peacefully and swiftly returning to its democratic path,” he said.
He also demanded an immediate restoration of constitutional order alongside the release of all detained officials.
The coup has also drawn criticism from several governments and regional blocs across West Africa.
On Friday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended Guinea-Bissau from its decision-making bodies. The African Union also did the same.
The AU decided “to suspend Guinea-Bissau from its bodies with immediate effect,” the chairman, Mahamoud Youssouf, had said.
The Nigerian government said the coup undermined the regional commitments member states have made to constitutional rule and political stability.
Ghana also viewed the “development with profound concern” and expressed “deep dissatisfaction at the brazen attempt to overturn the will of the people of Guinea-Bissau.”
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