ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Former President Goodluck Jonathan will this weekend leave for South Africa where he is scheduled as a key speaker at the inaugural African Presidential Leaders Centre Roundtable holding in Johannesburg. The ex-President will be joined by other former Presidents and eminent African statesmen to explore how the continent’s economic growth could be enhanced through functional education.
The theme of the conference is “Addressing Africa’s Educational Challenges in the 21st Century”. Speaking ahead of the meeting ex-President Jonathan, who is also the Chairman of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, said he is excited by the theme of the meeting, stressing that education is key to unlocking Africa’s rich potentials and solving the nation’s economic, social and security challenges.
A statement issued by the ex-President’s media adviser Mr. Ikechukwu Eze, said that at the end of the programme, the former President is billed to proceed to Liberia where he would be leading the National Democratic Institute’s International Election Observation Mission to the Liberian Presidential run off polls holding on 7th November, 2017.
Ex-President Jonathan who was initially invited as co-lead of the NDI team for the October 10 Liberian elections could not honour the invitation because of his earlier commitment to attend the 15th Rhodes Forum in Greece, where he presented a paper on ‘Multipolarity and Dialogue in Regional and Global Developments’.
He had, however, promised to honour NDI’s second invitation to lead the Mission to the runoff polls, after none of the presidential candidates failed to win 50 percent of votes cast during the first ballot.
The NDI is a United States-based organisation working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide, through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government. NDI works with local partners in more than 70 countries to encourage community dialogues, observe elections, increase citizen participation, and improve the responsiveness of government.
