Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that treating sitting presidents like god makes it unthinkable for them to leave office.
Mr Jonathan said this on Thursday at the constitutional term limits summit in Niamey, Niger Republic.
[ads]
The summit is being organised by the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
“Let’s create an environment where people will believe there’s life after office. That if you leave office you should not be persecuted,” Jonathan said.
“The way we manage ourselves as sitting presidents and former presidents matter. The first line is to reduce what will make a sitting president afraid to leave office.
“Africans sometimes, we are our own problem because we always think our presidents are little gods. That somebody is president does not mean he is God. We have a tradition of praise-singing. We tend to give our presidents name they don’t deserve.
“We tend to over-praise sitting presidents and make them think they are little gods. When they begin to make a sitting president think he is God, and he is the only person that can run the affairs of the nation; then the person will be there; nobody removes God.
[ads]
“When you make a president feel he is god, don’t expect him to leave. The media and civil society must continue to admonish characters that make presidents think they are the best thing to happen.”
Jonathan conceded defeat when he lost the 2015 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari, earning praise from across the world.
