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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will leave Abuja for Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, for the quarterly meeting of the West African Elders’ Forum to continue its advocacy missions for peaceful elections and good governance in the West African sub-region.
The forum will discuss emerging democratic trends and review political happenings in the sub-region ahead of the forthcoming general elections in some countries.
Other members of the forum attending the meeting are Prof. Ernest Bai Koroma, former President of Sierra Leone, Mr. Yayi Boni, former President of Benin, Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former President of Liberia, Dr. Ibn Chambas, former United Nations Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) and other key actors in the region.
A statement from the Communication Officer Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Mr Wealth Dickson Ominabo quoted the director of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Ms. Ann Iyonu, as stating that the strategy meeting is a follow-up to the Dakar Democracy Summit organized in May 2022, which brought together stakeholders to interrogate emerging constraints and challenges of West African democracy.
The statement read, “This is coming three months before an important general election in Nigeria where the country is expected to elect President Muahammadu Buhari’s successor. Sierra Leone and Liberia are the other West African countries holding general elections in 2023,
“The West African Elders’ Forum (WAEF) is an initiative of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, with support from the Open Society Foundation (OSF), was established to drive proactive consultations with stakeholders in the region toward preventing and resolving governance and election-related tensions.
“Since its inception in March 2021, the Forum has successfully played an active role in mediating peaceful elections in The Gambia. It has also intervened – with quiet diplomacy – in addressing nascent political challenges in some countries by engaging key stakeholders and political leaders at the highest level”.
