ECOWAS Picks Former Ghana President to Monitor Nigeria 2027 Election

(Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. Photo Source: allAfrica.com)

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS a group of West African countries has chosen Ghana's former president, Nana Akufo Addo, to lead a team of about 200 people.

According to reports the team will travel to Nigeria to watch and make sure the general elections on January 16, 2027, are peaceful, fair, and run properly.

The Office of the Former President announced the appointment in a statement on Thursday, November 12 2026.

Akufo Addo will oversee observers for the presidential and National Assembly elections, which are scheduled for January 16 2027.

ECOWAS plans to send a team of 200 observers under its 2001 Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.

The mission will include officials from foreign ministries and electoral commissions, ECOWAS ambassadors accredited to Nigeria, members of the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, the bloc's Court of Justice and Parliament, electoral bodies from member states, civil society groups, media workers and election experts from across West Africa.

The deployment is part of ECOWAS's regional framework for monitoring elections in member countries.

Akufo Addo was Ghana's president from January 2017 to January 2025.

He served two terms and handed power to John Dramani Mahama.

Before this new role, he led the ECOWAS observer mission to Benin's presidential election in April 2026.