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In less than one year after appointing him as special envoy on its mediation mission in Mali, the Economic Community of West African States has saddled Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan with a new responsibility to bring peace and stability among member states.
Jonathan was on Thursday appointed as chairman of the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, whose mandates include “Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Security.”
Reports have it that the new appointment indicates that ECOWAS is confident in the former Nigerian president’s ability to help lead its efforts to manage and resolve disputes and conflicts in the West African region. As a special envoy, Jonathan had helped ECOWAS to facilitate dialogue with all principal stakeholders in Mali’s leadership crisis.
According to Jonathan’s media office, the former president’s mediation efforts led to the release of the interim President of Mali, Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister, Moctar Ouane, by the country’s military.
While Jonathan was appointed chairman, former Executive Secretary of the Mano River Union of Guinea, Madam Hadja Saran Daraba was named vice-chairman of the ECOWAS Council of the Wise – a supportive organ with a mandate to bring peace and stability among member states.
ECOWAS disclosed the appointments in a statement published on its website on Thursday, following a two-day meeting that ended on 25th May 2021, in Ghana.
According to ECOWAS, the council which was established in 1999 had been lying dormant for years but was reconstituted lately due to the recent socio-political crisis across the region. Among the topical challenges bedeviling the West Africa region including Nigeria are terrorism and social unrest.
On her part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana, Mrs. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, urged the new leadership of the council to “assist ECOWAS in delivering on its peace and stability mandate as a necessary condition for continuous development and regional integration efforts
