Chairman of the Peace Accord Committee and former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, has expressed satisfaction with President Goodluck Jonathan for calling to congratulate the winner of the presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari.
Abdulsalami, who spoke to journalists following a closed-door meeting of the committee with the President, said they were shocked when Buhari told them the President called and offered his congratulations.
“We were at the middle of a meeting with the international observers to try to see how we can still water the tension down, when gladly I called Gen. Buhari that we are going to see him,” Abdulsalami said.
“He told me that Mr. President has called him at about 5:15 p.m. and congratulated him and conceded defeat.
“We were spellbound and the reason we have come here is to thank President Jonathan for this statesmanship. In the history of Nigeria, I think this is the first time where a contestant has called his rival to congratulate him.
“He has proved that he is a man of his word because during our interaction on this peace committee he has always maintained that he is going to accept the result of the elections whichever way it is done. And he has proved this,” the former Head of State said
Abdulsalami called on politicians to emulate the President as a way of ensuring that peace continues to reign.
“And I will appeal to all politicians; those who are celebrating and those who are sorrowing to please give peace a chance; to be moderate. In any contest there is always going to be a winner and President Jonathan has accepted that he lost and we want to thank him, he stated further.”
What Abdusalam did not tell the journalists was that he was the one who impressed on Jonathan the need to concede defeat and call Buhari.
Reliable sources told the www.icirnigeria.org many of Jonathan’s aides and associates, including a prominent politician from the Niger Delta had tried to convince Jonathan not to concede defeat, insisting that there were too many irregularities in the presidential election.