#USElection2020: ‘It Is Better To Gain Honour At The Cost Of Losing Power’ – ECOWAS Peace Envoy, Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Friday, has called on political actors in the United States of America Presidential election to be mindful not to turn the contest into a bloodbath.

Jonathan who was president of Nigeria between 2010 to 2015, is the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS special envoy who has been in the forefront of the sub-regional body’s mediation mission in Mali. 

In 2015, with presidential election results from all but one of Nigeria’s 36 states counted, and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, clearly in unassailable lead, President Goodluck Jonathan had telephoned Mr. Buhari to concede defeat.

Jonathan had called incumbent President Buhari to congratulate him on winning the presidential election even when one state was still being counted.

BIGPEN reports that Jonathan’s action was widely hailed by Nigerians and the international community haven prevented post-election violence in the country as was experienced in the 2011 presidential election.

President Muhammadu Buhari had also expressed his everlasting admiration for the former president for conceding defeat after losing the 2015 presidential election.

Buhari made history in 2015 when he became the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent president in a democratic election.

As a special envoy, the former President who was mandated to facilitate dialogue with major stakeholders in Mali, including ousted former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, opposition leaders, civil society and religious organisations towards resolving the socio-political crisis in the country, on Friday took to his Facebook page to admonish actors in the US presidential election.

Jonathan who is seen as an ambassador of peace in many African countries and has led many missions to restore tranquility in different countries, although didn’t mention the names of the two contenders in the US presidential election, had directed his message to the incumbent Republican President, Donald Trump and his democrat challenger, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. a former Vice President of the US.

Jonathan wrote; “Nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any citizen. It is better to gain honour at the cost of losing power, than to gain power at the cost of losing honour.

“At any point in time, the power of love should matter more than the love of power. This is my philosophy. I have lived it.

“It has brought great peace to both my beloved nation and I. And I recommend it to all leaders facing challenging situations, either in government, or at the polls, or even in their dealings with fellow political actors”.