Peaceful polls: Jonathan, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf To Attend West African Elders’ Forum Meeting

Former President Goodluck Jonathan is scheduled to attend the quarterly meeting of the West African Elders’ Forum in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.

According to a statement on Friday by Wealth Ominabo, communications officer of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, the meeting is a continuation of the forum’s advocacy missions for peaceful elections and good governance in the West African sub-region.

Ominabo said the forum will discuss emerging democratic trends and review political happenings in the sub-region ahead of forthcoming elections in some countries.

Other members of the forum expected to attend the meeting are Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former president of Liberia; Ernest Bai Koroma, ex-president of Sierra Leone; Boni Yayi, former president of Benin; Ibn Chambas, former United Nations special representative for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), and other key actors in the region.

“This is coming three months before an important general election in Nigeria where the country is expected to elect President Muahammadu Buhari’s successor,” the statement reads.

“Sierra Leone and Liberia are the other West African countries holding general elections in 2023.”

The statement, however, did not state the date for the meeting.

The West African Elders’ Forum (WAEF), formally inaugurated in March 2021, is an initiative of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

It was established to “drive proactive consultations with stakeholders in the region toward preventing and resolving governance and election-related tensions”.

Ann Iyonu, executive director of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, also said the strategy meeting is a follow-up to the Dakar democracy summit organised in May 2022, which brought together stakeholders to interrogate emerging constraints and challenges with democracy in West Africa.