Nigeria’s ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has declared that the do or die politics in place in many African countries is fuelling the insecurity rocking the continent.
He advised Nigerian politicians not to see elections as coups or war even as he warned that the contestation for power is responsible for the growing rate of insecurity not only in the country but across the continent of Africa.
The former president was speaking on Saturday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, during the thanksgiving service to mark the one year anniversary of Douye Diri as governor of the state. He advised those in politics not to play politics with bitterness stating: “At the end of every political process, let all of us come together and support whoever by divine providence God has made to be there.
“Our democratic process is recognised by law. So we modern day politicians should not begin to practice democracy and contestation to power as if we are organising a coup.
At the end of the political process, we expect that both parties should come together and the winner carries everybody along and leaders that contested this election must know that it was a political process known by law and whoever wins we agree that God gave him that position.”
Thanking Governor Douye Diri, he said: “I want to thank our governor for opening his hands and welcoming every citizen of Bayelsa State, irrespective of political divide. Immediately you win an election, you become the governor of everybody. And you can’t be governor of only the party you belong to.
“There is nothing wrong with a governor or president picking somebody from another party and making him commissioner or minister or any other office in government.
At the end of a process, whoever emerges serves everybody.
“The problem we have in Africa is contestation for power and most of our security problems are as a result of that. If this continent must develop, those of us who are contesting elections must know that it is not a civil war or military coup.”
Earlier, Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had said the country was in distress and it was only God that could take the citizens out of the troubles confronting it.
