People say- “a great man is never without honor”, this adage holds true for some certain persons that have walked this nation, even though they were under-appreciated during their tenure.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, also the chairperson of the WAEF is spearheading a mediation mission of the West African Elders Forum (WAEF) to Senegal ahead of the country’s presidential election on Saturday.
This was disclosed in a statement signed in Yenagoa on Thursday by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation communications officer, Wealth Ominabo.
According to the statement, Mr Jonathan and other forum members left Abuja on Thursday for Dakar, where they will remain until next Wednesday.
The forum is a composition of former presidents and statesmen who had volunteered to deploy their enormous leadership experience and wisdom toward promoting peace and progress in the sub-region.
The team will meet with key stakeholders, including outgoing President Macky Sall, opposition leaders, civil societies, security authorities, and the country’s electoral commission. Their main goal is to perform advisory and conflict resolution roles to reduce election-related conflicts to the barest minimum in the West Africa sub-region.
In a statement made by Ms Ann Iyonu, the executive director of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation and head of the WAEF secretariat, it was noted that while in Dakar, the forum would observe electoral processes and continue to engage political leaders and other stakeholders until the election was peaceful and successfully concluded.
WAEF, going by this mandate, had played similar roles during elections in The Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Liberia,” Ms Iyonu said