Goodluck Jonathan reaffirms Nation's unity always comes first

Posted by Nicholas on Wed 27th May, 2015 - tori.ng

The humble Goodluck Jonathan on May 26 once again reaffirmed the motives behind him having conceded defeat in the presidential election.

President Goodluck Jonathan has reaffirmed his sacrifice for Nigerians during his speech when he received the Peace-Loving Global Citizen Award from the Universal Peace Federation in Abuja, The Nation reports.

Goodluck Jonathan said he could not allow the disintegration of Nigeria, neither could he withstand the deaths of the country’s citizens over his political ambition. He expressed confidence that the unity of the nation stands before all the political issues.

“I took that decision because I told people around me that no matter the ambition anybody has, you must have a nation first and I used to say that even if I should be the President for the next 25 years, I will not be a happy person if so many Nigerians are killed because of me.

“One thing is to hold office, another thing is to be happy to satisfy your conscience. Yes there are different human beings, if you look at the behaviour of some people, even among siblings of the same family, some of them could turn to be Imams or Pastors, while some of them are armed robbers.

“So, if persons have those characters of criminal or somebody who is very vindictive, somebody who is by nature doesn’t care that people were dying, then of course even if half your country men and women are dying, you may celebrate it.

“But fortunately for me, God didn’t create me that way. And I cannot take it. So, I believe that for us to hold any office we want to, we must have a nation.

“Everybody know about the prediction of Nigeria disintegrating, and anything could have made that prediction to come through. After all we fought a civil war for about three years before as a nation.”

According to reports, Goodluck Jonathan further spoke about the point of bringing about a National Conference and urged Muhammadu Buhari’s government to appreciate its contributions.

“The idea of that National Conference was to look at the weak cleavages we have in this country, address them and implement the recommendations of the conference, in order to build a stronger and more united nation.

“I cannot be a party to the disintegration of the country; therefore, I am quite pleased with what has happened.

“We only pray that the incoming government appreciates the contributions of everybody, as far as the conference is concerned and see how we can run Nigeria as a country that belongs to everybody: all citizens, irrespective of political affiliations or creeds.”