It was indeed a surprising moment of showering encomiums on former President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday in the House of Representatives for willingly relinquishing power to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2015 after a keenly contested election.
The reps noted that Jonathan’s action as helped in stabilising the country feeble and nascent democracy which has not witnessed the handing over of power from a sitting president to a president-elect from opposition party.
The praises for the former president came as the House debated a motion to celebrate Democracy Day (May 29) and restate faith in it as the best form of government ‘in spite of present challenges’.
Members generally kicked against any thinking that a coup or the return of the military to power was an option.
The motion was moved by the Chairman, House Committee on Rules/Business, Mr Orker Jev, a member of the APC from Benue State.
The House Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, led members in praising Jonathan.
He noted that the former President acted ‘uncharacteristically, as an African leader’, to have handed over power willingly to a successor.
He further said that without Jonathan’s decision, the country might not be celebrating two years of the current administration in office.
However, Gbajabiamila explained that the commendation was done to underscore the point that celebrating democracy should be above partisanship.
He added that this was unlike the position of his colleagues in the Peoples Democratic Party, who would say they had not seen any change in the country in the last two years after Buhari took over governance.
The House leader argued that celebrating democracy actually meant celebrating the unity of the country since 1999.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that former President Goodluck Jonathan handed over power to President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2015 after the 2015 general elections.