Cote d'Ivoire President, Alassane Ouattara, says dialogue remains the immediate solution to the security situation caused by Boko Haram especially in the North-eastern part of the country.
Ouattara, who made this known in Abuja during his meeting with Nigerian businessmen and women, said with dialogue put in place, there will be relative peace in the country.
The Ivorian President cited examples of wars in some countries which lasted for years, but that when dialogue was introduced, peace automatically reigned supreme in such countries.
"Maintaining peace is very challenging. Activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria should be addressed with utmost caution. In this case, the only solution to the problem is dialogue. Federal Government of Nigeria should have a round-table discussion with the leaders of the sect and find a lasting solution to the problem. Even wars between two countries were being tackled with dialogue and this method should be used to solve the problem at hand", he said.
While calling on businessmen and women in the country to invest in Cote d'Ivoire for the country's economic growth, the President explained that the long years of political instability in his country has pulled it back economically.
His words: "I'm in Nigeria for two reasons. First, to thank President Goodluck Jonathan and the whole of Nigeria for standing by me in my trying period. All I can say is 'thank you'. I had wanted to visit Nigeria first to appreciate the people and the government, but President Obama invited me to the United State of America and I had to go there before coming to Nigeria.
"My second mission to the country is to invite all you businessmen and women to Cote d'Ivoire to invest in the economy of the country. We will give you full support and all the encouragement you will need for the growth of your businesses. The internal war in Cote d'Ivoire lasted for 10 years. About 3000 people were killed, while about 10 million were displaced. Between 2000 and 2010, our economy dropped by 6.7 percent. Input stopped for several years. This has affected our economy negatively. With the 20 million indigenes of Cote d'Ivoire and another 20 million foreigners, making up to 40 million population of the country, your businesses will receive upward growth in no time.
As I said earlier, we will give you full support in ensuring your businesses get to enviable height", Quattara promised.
Insisting on integration of African countries as a panacea for prosperity in the region, the Ivorian president said with his country's resources in agricultural products like cocoa, rubber, oil and others, and Nigeria richly blessed in oil and other mineral resources, the two countries would benefit immensely from each other economically.
"It is better we invest in African countries than other countries abroad. African countries and Africans will benefit from this and it will affect our development. That is why I will tell President Jonathan to look into the highway from Lagos to Abidjan and Dakar for easy transportation of goods in these countries. Apart from that, it will help in knowing the place of Africa in the Security Council", he said.
Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote said in his remarks promised to re-invest in the cement industry of the country.
Dangote explained that prior to the political instability in Cote d'Ivoire, he had started a cement industry which he said, was put on hold because of the crisis in the country.
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Nigeria does not need any advice from President, Alassane Ouattara. He has enough problems of his own with his own Islamic "Boko Haram" from Northern Ivory Coast. He is part of the conspiracy to Islamise West Africa. No thank you. He should use his "wisdom" to douse his own raging fire first.
Forfaka:
This Bandit,Alassane Ouattara was helped by Arch-Imperialist France with the cooperation of some African surrogate countries to usurp power in Cote d'Ivoire through coup d'etat and pogrom against Christian indigenes of that country. He is not an Ivorian native but a Burkinabe.Today with his kinsman, Blaise Coompaore of Burkina Faso,Ouattara is gradually transforming Cote d'Ivoire into a Burkinabe fiefdom. African Union should initiate an enquiry in the mass murder of thousand of innocent Children,women and men in Duekoue and ethnic cleansing of indigenous Christians by Ouattara islamic mercenary morons from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso.Ouattara Fulani people from the Sahara are seizing landed properties of indigenous Ivorians.The UN should be called in to help stop genocide.Over a half million indigenous Ivorians are not allowed to return homes most of which has been destroyed by Ouattara's muslim mercenaries.Perhaps a referendum might settle the problem of Cote d'Ivoire like in Sudan.GENOCIDE!
You bring many ideas to the table, but you don't bring any facts. You implicate France, the Arch-Imperialist, as being cooperative in this "progrom against Christian indigenes" which is just absurd. The elections themselves were determined to be relatively smooth. Outtara's citizenship under the ridiculous constitutional rules of "ivoirite" had been cleared by the Gbagbo appointed election committee, as had the voter roll. There was no problem with Outtara's candidacy before the election. Gbagbo, arrogant as usual, dusty headed and pumped up on born-again christian evangelical zeal, had just assumed he would win. It was only when Outtara was clearly the popular winner that Gbagbo annulled the results of his own electoral commission. Your capacity to distort even the most recent, verifiable history is astounding.
Going back in time a little further, to his birth in 1942, you'll see that Outtara was born before the formation of either Cote d'Ivoire or Burkina Faso. You'll also see that at the time Outtara was born, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso to us) was under the administration of the same department as Cote d'Ivoire. And since the relevant paragraph of the constitution (a poorly tacked together ad hoc document in the first place and surely due to be replaced sooner than later) refers to one parents, this ambiguity is even larger when we speak of Outtara's father who would have most likely been born in the 1920s. Applying current, present mental mapping to geography of the past is ridiculous.
And, if not dialogue with Boko Haram, then what? The multi-state solution, the so-called balkanization of Nigeria, cutting it up into thirds or sixths? As was seen from 190 to the present, each division created a new group of theoretically disenfranchised which just resulted into a further split. Shall we do with countries what was done with states? First 3 regions/countries, then 4, then 12, 19, 21, 30 up to the current 36 regions/states? Put differently, do you think the Ibibio, the Efik or the Tiv will see themselves as properly represented in a 3 country arrangement orchestrated by the Big 3? Or should the FG just hunt down the Boko Haram, whoever they are, where ever they are, and shoot them dead? Dialogue doesn't seem like such a crazy idea under the circumstances, and given the alternatives.
People who scream "GENOCIDE" in a crowded theater are often the same ones who lit the fire. And of course one questions the sanity of phobic personalities who declaim, "I am not paranoid it's just that everyone wants to kill me". I'm surprised you didn't once mention Hitler.