Former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, is expected in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, for the quarterly meeting of the West African Elders’ Forum as part of its advocacy missions for peaceful elections and good governance in the West African sub-region.
The forum, according to a statement signed by Wealth Ominabo, Communication Officer of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, “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 former President of Sierra Leone, Prof Ernest Bai Koroma; former President of Benin, Mr Yayi Boni; Nobel laureate former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; former United Nations Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) Dr Ibn Chambas, and other key actors in the region.
Executive Director of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Ms Ann Iyonu, stated that the strategic meeting was a follow-up to the Dakar Democracy Summit organised in May 2022, which brought together stakeholders to interrogate emerging constraints and challenges of West African democracy.
This meeting is coming barely three months before Nigeria’s general elections. Sierra Leone and Liberia are the other West African countries holding general elections in 2023.
The West African Elders’ Forum, the brainchild of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, with support from the Open Society Foundation, 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 in addressing political challenges in some countries by engaging key stakeholders and political leaders at the highest level.
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