President
Muhammadu Buhari has said he was shocked when former president Goodluck
Jonathan called him to concede defeat while votes were still being counted
during the 2015 election.
Mr.
Buhari made the disclosure on Monday at the Presidential Banquet Hall, Aso
Villa, Abuja, when he hosted the State House Press Corps to a lunch as part of
activities marking this year’s democracy day.
“When
he made that famous call at 4:45 pm and said ‘Good evening Mr. President, I
have called to congratulate you and I concede defeat’, I was silent for quite a
while because I was surprised and he said ‘did you hear me?’,” the president
said.
Mr.
Buhari said he was shocked because for someone who was a deputy governor, a
governor, a vice president and a president for six years to concede that easily
showed Mr. Jonathan’s “great sense of patriotism”.
President
Buhari said another former military head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar,
advised him to visit Mr. Jonathan for his “statesmanship and decision to save
the Nigerian state”.
Mr.
Buhari also said Mr. Jonathan belonged to a party that was at the helms of
affairs for 16 years and for him to still go ahead and concede “was definitely
not an easy decision”.
-Premium Times
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