Jonathan: I Will Be More Regular at State House in Coming Days

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday, said his visit to the State House, Abuja, will be more regular in coming days because of the many challenges facing the West African subregion.

Jonathan gave the hint while speaking to newsmen after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa.

The former President, who is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Special Envoy, leading its mediation mission on Mali, was at the Villa to discuss developments on conflicts with President Tinubu.

Jonathan said he will frequently have issues of ECOWAS regional concerns to discuss with President Tinubu, who is currently the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the regional body.

He said:  “I’ve been a part of ECOWAS from 2020, as the ECOWAS Mediator in Mali and now that we’re lucky our President has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, in fact, I will be coming here almost every week so Nigerians should not be surprised because we have a lot of challenges in the sub-region and those were the things we were discussing.

“We have crisis in Mali, crisis in Guinea, crisis in Burkina Faso, I’m really handling Mali, but still oversighting others. So we came to put our heads together. I’m also the Chair of the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, we hold meetings and we see that Chair of the Authority to have conversations on how to move things forward.

“So since he just came back from the AU programme in Nairobi and I’m traveling tomorrow, so I’ve decided to come and brief him to know how to move ahead with the ECOWAS challenges”, Jonathan said.

President Tinubu also yesterday evening hosted Governors Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara) at the Villa.