Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, has said that Nigeria’s former President, Goodluck Jonathan should be praised for conceding defeat after losing the March 28, 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria.
In an interview with Punch newspaper, Carrington said Jonathan set an example that should be emulated by other leaders in Africa.
‘That was probably one of his finest moments. It would be extraordinary in the sense that generally in Africa, there has not been that many examples of a change of political party through the ballot box. I think ex-President Jonathan has set an example that I hope will be emulated by other leaders in Africa. One of the true tests of whether you have a democratic functioning system is if the party in power is defeated and then steps aside gracefully for the opposition. That is crucial for democracy because no country can have a functional democracy if those in opposition feel that they will never have a fair chance of winning. And so, what democracy does is, ‘OK, look, we lost this election but there is another one to come.’ I have gone through that in the United States. I am a member of the Democratic Party. We had two terms of George Bush – I didn’t vote for George Bush; nevertheless, he was my president.
“He could have at most two terms and after that he had to leave. We had another election and the Republican lost and the Democrats took over. That is really important and I think Nigeria being a leading country in Africa did demonstrate such an example by the fact that the head of the ruling party accepted defeat when his party lost in the last presidential election. It was the first time that will happen since the return of democracy. There were no riots; there were no disturbances and no killing. I think that is a very good thing. Ex-president Goodluck Jonathan certainly should be praised for the way in which he accepted defeat. Because you know in other countries around the world you have situations that had not been the case. It is extremely important to set that example, not only for Nigeria and Africa that even though your party is out (of power) you have to try again in the next election,” Carrington said.
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