Former President Goodluck Jonathan dismissed Guinea-Bissau's recent military intervention as a "ceremonial coup" orchestrated by sitting President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, not a genuine takeover. Speaking in Abuja after evacuation from election monitoring duties where he was trapped, Jonathan noted Embaló announced his own "arrest" via phone to global media while freely addressing press, an anomaly unlike standard coups.
The upheaval halted vote collation for presidential results from nine regions, which observers deemed peaceful and ready for announcement when Embaló declared the coup. Jonathan urged ECOWAS and AU citing his Côte d'Ivoire 2010 mediation to tally and release results, affirming the opposition winner without bloodshed or military rollback.
He demanded opposition leader Fernando Diaz's unconditional release, criticized Embaló's ECOWAS chair betrayal despite military ties, and backed the bloc's suspension while predicting civilian return within a decade.