President Alhassan Ouattara of Côte d’ Ivoire on Monday visited President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja to congratulate him on the recently concluded peaceful general elections in Nigeria.
Quattara held closed doors talks with President Jonathan, after which he spoke with State House correspondents.
The Ivorian President commended Jonathan for accepting defeat even before Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition All Progressives Congress was declared winner by the election umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He recalled that his country was plunged into civil war because the incumbent then, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to accept defeat, saying Jonathan has set worthy record for the rest of Africa to follow.
President Quattara told the outgoing Nigerian leader: “And so, I wanted to tell you our appreciation over the leadership we have received from you during these years.
“You know that about five years ago, Côte d’Ivoire had elections and I won the election and the former president decided not to leave office.
“This brought the civil war.
“Three thousand people were killed and we were put at the hotel for protection by the United Nations for four and a half months.
“We were there without food because the hotel was guarded by the president.
“It was only after four and a half months of imprisonment in that hotel that finally we were able to leave the hotel after the former president quit and finally left office for me.
“I am saying this to say that what happened in Nigeria is a lesson to all of us and please accept my admiration.
“I think that avoiding violence, avoiding civil war when we have elections in Africa should be our utmost objective.
“People are more important than power and Mr. President, my good friend, I am not surprised about what you did and I wanted to congratulate you, congratulate the Nigerian people and congratulate the president-elect.
“It is a legacy for the African countries and I think we owe you a lot in ECOWAS.
“I will like to also say that for two years, I was chairman of ECOWAS after yourself and we had to deal with very difficult issues like the wars in Mali, terrorism in Northern Nigeria, the problem in Guinea Bissau, the problems in Togo.
“You were always present for us.
“You are a West African before being a Nigerian and we thank you for what you did for West Africa.
“And we also were together to set up the partnership agreement with the European Union and only West Africa has been able to do this.
“My brother, you have shown support to me during the difficult years I went through, you have shown friendship to me all these years and so I wanted to tell you thank you.”