Former President Goodluck Jonathan dropped bombshells in Abuja, labeling Guinea-Bissau’s Nov 26 upheaval a bizarre “ceremonial coup” after returning safely from observing the tense Nov 23 polls between Umaro Sissoco Embaló and Fernando Dias. He slammed the weirdness: Embaló himself announced his “arrest” via global media while freely using his phone, before military spokesman Brig. Gen. Dinis Incanha claimed “total control” on state TV—suspending politics, borders, and results amid gunfire at the palace and election HQ.
Jonathan, drawing from his Mali mediation days, called it fishy—”Who is fooling who?”—as no real ouster let the president chat freely. He urged ECOWAS (chaired recently by Embaló) and AU to tally and announce the unaltered regional results they hold, echoing his 2010 Côte d’Ivoire stand for winner Alassane Ouattara over Laurent Gbagbo, stressing “democracy is about majority” without bloodshed.
Painstakingly worse than his 2023 election loss, this risks dragging Guinea-Bissau—hit by 9 coups since 1974—back to dark impunity eras. Jonathan demanded opposition leader Dias’s release (arrested but escaped), ECOWAS suspension firmness despite exits, and no military forever predicting civil rule return in under 10 years.
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