Opinion: 2019 Election Results: When Nigeria Needs A Jonathan, By SKC Ogbonnia
President Goodluck Jonathan…buried past transgressions by conceding in a timely manner in 2015. Despite obvious electoral flaws in the 2015 process, Jonathan congratulated the winner for the greater good. Today, he has become a hero in defeat. Many great men had lost in the past and ended as the heroes of their people.
The prayer here is for the winners to be magnanimous in victory, and for the losers to have the courage to concede in good faith. There is a rap that Buhari was a sore loser on the three different occasions he did not win. That is sadly true. In fact, he neither congratulated the winners in 2003, 2007, and 2011, nor recognised them while they were in office.
…now is the time for both former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari to emulate former President Jonathan and demonstrate exemplary leadership. The posterity calls on Atiku to concede defeat and, if aggrieved, abide by the Constitution and seek redress in the courts. Similarly, Buhari should demonstrate, more than ever before, that he is the father of the whole nation.