21 March, 2024

The West African Elders Forum (WAEF) has deployed a mediation mission to Senegal ahead of the country’s presidential election on March 24, 2024.

The mission, led by WAEF chairperson and Nigeria’s former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, also includes Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, former Under-Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel and former president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as well as members of staff of the WAEF secretariat.

This was conveyed in a signed statement by the Communications Officer of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Wealth Ominabo, on Thursday.

“Members of the mission, who left Abuja on Thursday for Darkar, will be in Senegal from 21-27 March, 2024”, the statement said.

It said the team would meet with key stakeholders, including outgoing President Macky Sall, opposition leaders, civil society, the security authorities and the country’s electoral commission.

The statement quoted the Executive Director of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, Ms Ann Iyonu, as having stated that “WAEF is a forum primed for mediation, advisory and conflict-resolution roles to ensure that election-related conflicts are reduced to the barest minimum in the West Africa sub-region.”

She added that the forum is “made up of former presidents and statesmen who have volunteered to deploy their enormous leadership experience and wisdom towards promoting peace and progress in the sub-region.”

Iyonu noted further that while in Dakar, members of the WAEF mission would closely observe the process of elections and continue to engage the political leaders and other stakeholders in Senegal until the 2024 election procedures are peacefully and successfully concluded.

“WAEF, going by this mandate, had played similar roles during elections in The Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia”, the statement concluded.

Recall that the Senegalese presidential election was originally slated to hold on February 25, 2024 but was postponed indefinitely by a decree of outgoing President Macky Sall issued on February 3, 2024, while the country’s National Assembly moved the poll to December 15, 2024.

The announcement of the delayed presidential election about three weeks before the planned February 25 vote sparked protests that resulted in violent clashes between protesters and the police in the capital, Darkar, which snowballed nationwide and generated concern over a possible wave of political instability.

However, the Senegalese Constitutional Council overturned the postponement and ordered Presidential election to proceed as soon as possible, a development that resulted in the government setting March 24, 2024 as new date for the poll.