Côte D’ivoire’ Not Nigeria Airlifted Jonathan From Guinea-bissau


Amid FG’s Delay, Ivory Coast Airlifts ex-President Jonathan from Guinea-Bissau

•Military general sworn in leader after disputed vote

•Lawmakers urged Tinubu to facilitate Jonathan’s return

•FG says ex-leader safe, condemns military coup


Côte d’Ivoire yesterday airlifted former President Goodluck Jonathan from Guinea-Bissau where the ex-Nigerian was trapped after a coup d’état in the West African country, once again bringing to the fore what appeared to be the increasingly lackadaisical posture of the Nigerian government.

While Abidjan acted with urgency to protect a visiting African leader, Abuja appeared flat-footed, offering little visible coordination or assertive diplomatic engagement despite Jonathan’s status as a former head of state and an envoy of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

THISDAY learnt yesterday that the Ivorian government had already made arrangements to fly Jonathan using the country’s presidential jet, with some aides of President Bola Tinubu, getting in touch with a Jonathan aide in Abuja, rather than official communication from the highest level of the Nigerian government.

“It was the Côte d’Ivoire government that reached out to President Jonathan and they have provided an aircraft that’s bringing him back,” a source who preferred anonymity told THISDAY yesterday.

However, it was learnt that although the Nigerian government later reached out, the Ivorian government had already reached out to the former President and had already concluded arrangements to return him to Nigeria.

It was also confirmed last night that contrary to reports that it was the soldiers who carried out the coup that escorted the former Nigerian President out of the country, they were not actually involved in the movement of Jonathan and his sides.

Rather, it was learnt that ECOMOG forces, comprising soldiers from Nigeria, Ghana and Senegalese soldiers, gave the former Nigerian President security from his hotel to the airport. “You will see that it was a presidential jet with the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire mark”, the source stated.

However, as of last night, THISDAY gathered that Jonathan who was in Guinea-Bissau as Head of the West African Elders Forum (WAEF), serving as part of an international observer mission, had returned to Nigeria.

He, alongside other foreign observers, were trapped on Wednesday

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