Capitol siege: It’s better to lose power to gain peace, Jonathan advises Trump
Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has waded into escalating civil unrest in the United States, as outgoing U.S. leader Donald Trump has voiced his unpreparedness to relinquish power to President-elect Joe Biden.
Mr. Trump has spent weeks railing against purported claims of being rigged out of a win in the November election, while continually exhibiting an uncooperative stance towards the Biden-Harris Transition Team.
Hours after riling up supporters, who he encouraged to march to the Capitol — meeting place of the U.S. Congress, hundreds of demonstrators Wednesday breached security and scaled the steps of the building where federal lawmakers were due to certify Mr. Biden’s victory at the poll.
Reacting to the violent desecration of the United States’ parliament, the former Nigerian leader had in a veiled reference to the U.S. president, advised against sacrificing public peace for the lust for power.
“I have repeatedly said nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any citizen, in any part of the world,” former president Jonathan wrote in a Facebook post Thursday morning. “Absolutely nobody. Again, I reiterate that it is better to lose power at the cost of gaining peace than to gain power at the price of losing the peace.”
He added that “as a leader, one must not just look unto one’s own interest, but the interest and the good of society. It is never too late to reject the venom and inject the serum of peace.”
Mr. Jonathan, who lost his reelection bid in 2015 to President Muhammadu Buhari, had swiftly conceded the election and congratulated his opponent before the final results were announced by Nigeria’s electoral body INEC.
The historic move by the ex-president has been globally applauded, with many asserting that his unprecedented concession to defeat had averted looming crises and potential loss of lives.
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