Sheriff Mahmud Ismail

To underpin the effectiveness of the Mission’s ‘preventive diplomacy’ component in this very fluid situation, it is imperative that the ECOWAS HoM, H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma and team, are provided with adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on what is obtaining on the ground and across the country. Team Leads of various ECOWAS observers deployed in the regions have therefore been linked up to the Situation Room at the ECOWAS Secretariat in Abuja, to brief the delegation.

Earlier today, as the preventive diplomacy component of the Mission gathers pace, former President of Sierra Leone H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma along delegation, separately received in audience the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Wendy Campbell Laing CB, and Madam Giovanie Bihi, who is the Acting head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel.

Both ‘closed-door’ meetings, which took place Sunday, February 26, 2023 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria. were part of ECOWAS’s shift in mandate from elections observation to Preventive Diplomacy. This second component of the ECOWAS mission, focuses on mediation, the peaceful resolution of electoral disputes and a peaceful transition.

In pursuit of this mandate, and as the public and elections stakeholders complain of slowness in the most anticipated real time upload of result on INEC’s Portal, former African Presidents leading international elections observer missions, convened another closed-door consultation meeting to review the situation, agree on their next steps and explore possible interventions in calming anxieties until final results are officially announced.