Abidjan — "Peace is not a word, it is a way of life". That was a favourite phrase of the founding father of independent Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet Boigny, who fostered his image as a man of peace. But seven years after Houphouet's death, the legacy of peace he hoped to leave behind has been shattered.
Instead, Ivorians , their presidential candidates and those who failed in their bid for the top job, seem more concerned about the issue of identity and who belongs.
After years of preaching unity and brotherhood, this nation of 15m - with an immigrant population estimated at 40% - seems to have shifted into a phase of pernicious nationalism. A leading presidential hopeful , Alassane Dramane Ouattara - a muslim northerner - who was once Cote D'Ivoire's prime minister under President Houphouet - has been banned from standing in elections.
We are told that Mr Ouattara, who heads the opposition Rally of Republicans, RDR, is not Ivorian, but a national of neighbouring Burkina Faso. His exclusion has enraged RDR supporters and split a country which once prided itself on its diversity and successful blending of ethnic groups and religions. A total of twelve candidates - including another Muslim - were also disqualified. Two others withdrew their candidacy..
Many blame Houphouet's successor, Henri Konan Bedie , who was ousted in a military coup last December for first stoking the flames of ethnic hatred in Ivory Coast. His contested encouragement of "Ivoirite", which loosely translates as "Ivorian-ness" has divided the country which was once a regional eldorado.
Houphouet wooed huge numbers of immigrants from neighbouring states to settle in Cote D'Ivoire, initially as workers on the coffee and cocoa plantations which made this country economically prosperous.
Now the man who overthrew Bedie, General Robert Guei, who is standing in the presidential poll, has also been accused of playing the ethnic card to prevent his rival, Ouattara, from participating on the grounds of nationality. And Mr Ouattara's camp says another presidential contender, Laurent Gbagbo, has been sucked into the mire. Ouattara's spokesman, Aly Coulibaly, has called Gbagbo - who stood against Houphouet in the past - a self-serving traitor.
"He has betrayed us to connive with a dictatorship," said Coulibaly of Gbagbo, adding that the man whose Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) was allied to the RDR "has sold out".
At his final campaign rally, Laurent Gbagbo made it plain that he considered Alassane Ouattara a foreigner (from Burkina Faso) who had worked in several senior positions as 'Voltaic' (Upper Volta being the former name of Burkina Faso. "We in the FPI," Gbagbo told a supportive and ethusiastic audience, "don't think that the post of president of the republic is the job for retired senior government officials from other countries. You can't just become president in one country, after serving as a senior civil servant in another."
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Mr Gbagbo said his opposition to Mr Ouattara had nothing to do with his being Muslim, or a northerner. Coulibaly contests this, saying northerners who are mainly Muslim in Ivory Coast, feel marginalised and are being treated as second-class citizens which they will never expect.
Ouattara's party and the former governing Democratic Party (PDCI) have called for a massive boycott. Ouattara has challenged those who say his parents were not Ivorian to prove it, maintaining that he is a Cote D'Ivoire national and pointing out that he served his country loyally, as prime minister from 1990 until after Houphouet's death in 1993
