Former President Goodluck Jonathan did not attend the Leadership Person of the Year 2015 Awards held on Thursday at the Transcorp Hill Hotel, Abuja, by Leadership Newspaper.
The former President sent a representative in the person of Taminu Turaki, former minister of special duties, while President Muhammadu Buhari and Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) personally attended the event.
Citing the roles they played in the 2015 general election, the publication nominated Jonathan, Jega and Buhari as its Persons of the Year 2015.
In his welcome address, Sam Nda-Isaiah, chairman, Leadership Group Limited,said the event was organised to celebrate democracy, and to also acknowledge the roles played by key actors.
Abdusalami Abubakar, a former military head of state, who chaired the occasion, said Nigeria had a good reason to be grateful for the outcome of the election.
He said considering political violence in other African countries, it was important for Nigerians to celebrate that the election was peaceful.
Abubakar said most of the wars witnessed in other countries would have been avoided if the actors had emulated Buhari, Jonathan and Jega.
Buhari hailed his joint winners, saying the last general election was a watershed in the history of the country.
“Let me hasten to congratulate my joint award winners, my predecessor, His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR and Professor Attahiru Jega, the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, as ‘Leadership Person of the Year.’,” he said.
“The events of 2015, which the Leadership newspaper has chosen to bring to the fore today, marked a watershed in the political history of our country.
“Those of us who were participating actors in the elections were led by the higher ideal of the future of our great country and the well-being of our people rather than the mere desire of politicians to win elections.
“It is therefore our commitment to this ideal, the patriotic zeal of President Jonathan, the impartiality of the electoral umpire, INEC, and exemplary conduct of the political parties, foreign pressure and other actors that we collectively disappointed the prophets of doom who had predicted the disintegration of the country after the 2015 general election.”
It was not immediately clear why former President Jonathan did not attend the high-profile event choosing instead to be represented by a former minister in his cabinet.
However, sources informed about the development told SIGNAL on Thursday, Jonathan’s refusal to show up at the Awards was largely in “protest reaction” to being placed side by side with the former INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega who was an appointee under his administration to preside over the 2015 presidential elections, and Muhammadu Buhari who had a record of threatening to unleash violence if he lost.
“They can keep their award. The people who really needed the award are the ones who showed up personally tonight. Jonathan has received many global awards. If they want to award the former President for the role he played in midwifing a peaceful and successful transition to the current government, they should do it decently. This was clearly political and there was no way Jonathan was going to show up to validate the politics of this award with his presence”, the source who did not want to be named told SIGNAL.
SIGNAL could not confirm the details with former President Jonathan at the time of filing this report.
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