President Jonathan’s Defeat: African Countries Are Happy Over It – Obasanjo

Olusegun Obasanjo

I have visited six African countries since after the Nigeria’s general election and i can boldly said they are all happy seeing incumbent president Jonathan been defeated – Obasanjo.

That is the a key point former president Olusegun Obasanjo made on Thursday in USA.

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Thursday said countries across the African continent are happy over the outcome of the presidential election in Nigeria, which saw the defeat of incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr. Obasanjo said his checks in a number of African countries suggested they were as happy over the result of the election as majority of Nigerians are.

He referred to President Goodluck Jonathan as a moving train who was providentially stopped from collapsing Nigeria.

“I have visited six countries since the election, they are as happy about the results as we are in Nigeria. It is good not only for Nigeria, it is good for Africa and I believe it is good for the world.”

Mr. Obasanjo, who led the African Union Observation Mission to the April 2015 General Election in Sudan, spoke on Thursday at a Washington DC event.

The former president described Nigeria as a country that obsessively plays “a dangerous game of moving close to the precipice”.

He said the country came close to disintegration in the run-up to the 2015 elections but switched swiftly to the path of redemption after the polls.

“I hope we will not fall over one of these days,” he said.

He said one month to the election, no one believed “we will have a peaceful election that is reasonably free and fair.”

Describing his role in the election as that of a person standing on the track of a moving train, the former president said during the countdown to the elections, he faced the option of “jumping off” the tracks or “be crushed” if the train did not providentially get “derailed and stop.”