The West African Elders Forum (WAEF), made up of former leaders in the sub-region, has concluded arrangements to deploy a Mediation team to Nigeria ahead of the 2023 general polls.
The team led by former Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama is billed to arrive in Abuja on February 22, 2023, and is expected to be on the ground for the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections as well as the March 11, 2023, state elections. Other members of the team include former Beninese President Boni Yayi, Fatoumata Tambajang, former Vice President of the Gambia, former Burkinabe prime minister and president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Kadre Ouedraogo and Dr. Erastus Mwencha, former Deputy Chair of the African Union (AU).
Speaking ahead of their arrival, Ann Iyonu, Executive director of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation and Coordinator of the WAEF Secretariat, said the focus and activities of the Forum, which is made up of former Presidents and Heads of Government in West Africa, is to interface with key stakeholders and provide the necessary support that would ensure peaceful elections.
She explained that the leaders would be working with key stakeholders in the elections as well as the observer missions, to ensure a crisis-free process before, during, and after the elections.
She said further: “Unlike other observation missions, the Forum has a special focus on election-related conflicts, and the Elders will be on the ground for a longer time, interacting with the candidates, political parties and members, the citizens, the election umpire, observers, and other key stakeholders; all the time looking out for crisis triggers, with the mind of nipping them in the bud by offering mediatory roles and giving relevant advice to ensure peaceful polling, based on their personal experiences as former leaders of the sub-region, while calling for individual accountability by those who by their actions or inactions undermine the democratic process and endanger lives.”
During the Gambian elections last December, WAEF carried out a similar engagement where they deployed a team led by former Nigerian President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The presence of the WAEF team in The Gambia and their mediatory activities, especially after the elections, helped to resolve post-election tensions that threatened the integrity and outcome of the polling.
The WAEF team will be in Abuja next week to witness the second signing of the National Peace Accord by Presidential candidates and chairpersons of political parties, which is aimed not only at ensuring peaceful electioneering but also at committing the candidates to accept the outcome of the elections.
It would be recalled that ahead of the 2023 general elections, WAEF deployed a three-man delegation to Nigeria to undertake a pre-election mediation mission. The delegation made up of His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, former President of Sierra Leone; Her Excellency Fatoumata Tambajang, former Vice President of the Gambia, and Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambers; former President of the ECOWAS Commission and former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of the UNOWAS had strategic engagements with key stakeholders from 4th to 6th December 2022.
The West African Elders Forum, an initiative of the Foundation was established to serve as a home-grown and non-partisan platform of past heads of state and government in West Africa. As a platform, the Forum draws on the experience and standing of its members to provide advisory, mediation, and conflict resolution support services to the political leaders by bringing useful and non-partisan insights and skills for defusing tension and reconciling positions for the sake of the sustenance and advancement of democracy not only in West Africa but the entire continent. It also works on various democracy promotion, peace and security, and governance initiatives in the sub-region. Its overarching motivation is to work with other stakeholders to limit instability and violence and to advance the integrity of the democratic process.
One of the principal objectives of the Forum is to accompany West African countries in their various efforts at consolidating their democracies, through free, fair elections and peaceful transitions. In doing so, the Forum offers its good offices before, during, and after elections to ensure that any disputes that may arise do not degenerate into an open conflict and are resolved according to the demands of the rule of law.
The Forum has, since its inception, successfully played an active role in mediating peaceful elections in the Gambia and also intervened – with quiet diplomacy – in addressing nascent political challenges in a couple of countries by reaching out to and engaging with key political leaders at the highest level.
Wealth Dickson Ominabo,
Communications Officer, Goodluck Jonathan Foundation
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