President elect, Muhammadu Buhari today acknowledged that President Goodluck Jonathan’s phone call to concede defeat changed the course of history, as he could have chosen to use his power of incumbency to scuttle the electoral process.
“What I will say is since the telephone call you made, you have changed the course of Nigeria’s political history. For that you have earned yourself a place in our history, for stabilising this system of multi party democracy system and you have earned the respect of not only Nigerians but world leaders,” Buhari told Jonathan at the Presidential Villa after receiving the hand over note as well as the report of the National Conference from him.
“All the leaders that spoke to me and congratulated us for arriving at the point we arrived, mentioned this and I could understand, a lot of relief in their voices that Nigeria has made it after all and this is largely owed to a situation.
“If you (Jonathan) had attempted to make things difficult, you could have made things difficult and that would have been at the expense of lives of poor Nigerians, but you choose the part of honour and may God help all of us. Thank you very much your excellency,” he said.
Speaking earlier, President Jonathan told Buhari that the documents he was handing over would give the incoming president the “mission statement of the commitment of this government for the past five years and the directions we are going that will help you to navigate.”
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