Nigerian voters will choose their president on Saturday Ahead of Nigeria's presidential elections, Nigerian-born novelist and journalist Kingsley Kobo - who has spent the past 16 years in Ivory Coast with his Ivorian wife and children - reflects on what lessons Nigeria could learn from the Ivorian crisis.
Fellow Nigerians, it is a great opportunity to exercise your civic rights as the country goes to the polls. Generations to come will salute your courage in helping to consolidate democracy in our beloved nation.However, the most important thing in an election is not the voting process but the aftermath. Will the ballots be well handled? Will losers accept the verdict? Will the winner humble the vanquished?
As a Nigerian-born, adopted in the Ivory Coast and now living modestly in Ghana with my little family after fleeing the Ivorian post-electoral conflicts, I wish to arm your spirits by sharing some of my own bittersweet experiences.
'Setting the land ablaze'
African women called for an end to fighting in Ivory Coast at a recent summit in Abuja But these conflicts don't matter - what matters is the change your one single vote will bring to your life and to that of your family.
During the Ivory Coast elections, few thought about their own future while voting.
They wanted their candidate to win by any means necessary, even if the price meant sacrificing their own lives and setting the land ablaze.
My brothers and sisters, what shall it profit you and your loved ones in fomenting civil disorders for a candidate you have not, and may never, meet?Continued
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