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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The West African Elders Forum (WAEF) has deployed a mediation mission to Senegal ahead of the country’s March 24, 2024 presidential election.
The mission, led by WAEF Chairperson and former Nigerian President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, also includes Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, former Under-Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel and former president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as well as staff of the WAEF secretariat.
A statement signed by the communications officer, Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Wealth Dickson Ominabo, said that members of the Mission who left Abuja on Thursday for Dakar will be in Senegal from 21 – 27 March 2024.
It said the team would meet with key stakeholders, including outgoing President Macky Sall, opposition leaders, civil society, the security authorities and the country’s electoral commission.
The executive director of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation and head of the WAEF secretariat, Ms Ann Iyonu, stated that WAEF is a “forum primed for mediation, advisory and conflict resolution roles to ensure that election related conflicts are reduced to the barest minimum in the West Africa sub-region.”
She added that the Forum is “made up of former Presidents and statesmen who have volunteered to deploy their enormous leadership experience and wisdom towards promoting peace and progress in the sub-region.”
She noted further that while in Dakar, members of the Mission would closely observe the process of elections and continue to engage the political leaders and other stakeholders in Senegal until the 2024 election procedures are peacefully and successfully concluded.
WAEF, going by this mandate, had played similar roles during elections in The Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
