The Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Reuben Abati, said his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan outsmarted the All Progressives Congress (APC) by conceding defeat and congratulating the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari after the Presidential election.
He recalled that the APC had threatened to form a parallel government thinking that Jonathan would be like former Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, who remained in office until he was overthrown.
In an article published on his website in response to Olusegun Adeniyi’s Trip to Babel essay, Abati insisted that Jonathan would forever be remembered as a hero who disgraced his opponents.
Abati noted: “Their tactics, which range from the dubious to the mischievous, have included a desperate attempt to push the story that President Jonathan would not be the first African leader to concede victory in an election, or that he is certainly not the first Nigerian President to do so.
“The second claim has been effectively dismissed with historical facts, and as for the former, in a continent where sit-tightism remains a threat to democratic consolidation, and elections in many places are seen as mere rituals for keeping the monarch in power till death do them part, no informed student of the subject will deny the truth that President Jonathan’s conduct is definitely an act of statesmanship and heroism, and that President Jonathan deserves all the recognition, the accolades, applause and vastly elevated moral stature that has come with that singular act”.
“By his very unusual and highly symbolic act of graceful concession, President Jonathan snatched glorious victory from the jaws of seeming defeat. He outsmarted his traducers and became, overnight, a hero of global proponents of true democracy in Africa.
“While many of his opponents seemed obsessed with power at all costs and by all means possible, by calling General Buhari to concede victory, President Jonathan fully lived up to his often-stated conviction that the country is more important than individual ambitions and that leadership should be more about sacrifice than the pursuit of self-interest.
“Some had threatened that he would end up like Cote d’Ivoire’s Laurent Gbagbo. He proved to be a much better student of history. They promised that if his electoral defeat which they had dictated as inevitable did not come to pass, they would instigate chaos and confusion, form a parallel government and make Nigeria ungovernable, hang it all on his head and send him to the International Criminal Court.
“In the end, he short-circuited their conspiracy and showed that he belongs to a global hall of honour, not infamy”, he noted.
Abati also responded to speculations that Jonathan was pressured into conceding defeat.
According to him, Jonathan had already started moving his belongings out of the presidential villa since April 1, when the Independent national Electoral Commission announced the results.
The presidential spokesman said the Peoples Democratic Party was still facing the trauma of defeat.
He, therefore, urged commentators and members of the public to let the party grieve in peace rather than continue to heat up the polity.
Abati, on why the Jonathan administration had about six different PDP chairmen, noted that Adeniyi’s bias was undisguised, adding that his construction of a duel was curious.
He said, “Contrary to insinuations, they (PDP chairmen) were not removed by President Jonathan. Okwesilieze Nwodo was removed by a court of law due to Enugu State politics. Dr. Haliru Bello who served as acting chairman after him was later appointed Minister of Defence in 2011. Alhaji Abubakar Baraje succeeded Bello also in acting capacity to complete Nwodo’s aborted tenure. The story of the exit of Vincent Ogbulafor and Bamanga Tukur equally has nothing to do with the President,” he said.
Abati concluded by saying Olusegun Adeniyi got it all wrong with his write-up
“But not done with his trip to Babel, he is also threatening to write a book to be titled: ‘Against the Run of Play: How an Incumbent President was Defeated in Nigeria’. He certainly owes us an obligation to declare early enough if that is intended to be a work of fiction and hearsay.
“The People’s Democratic Party which lost power suddenly at the centre, after 16 years in the saddle, is obviously undergoing a post-defeat trauma. Discrediting President Jonathan, with dubious story-telling, should not be part of that crisis”.
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