Opposition Walks out of Parliament in protest against visiting Ivorian Assembly Speaker, Guillaume Soro

Yaounde, Cameroon—Members of parliament of the leading opposition party in Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) on Wednesday June 11, 2014 staged a walk out of parliament in protest against visiting former warlord and current speaker of the National Assembly of the Cote d’Ivoire, Hon. Guillaume Soro.

SDF walk out is a show of advanced democracy-Soro

“Guillaume Soro is not a good example that Cameroonians or African youths should emulate. That is the man who destabilized his nation, up to this material moment we are talking, over 100.000 people are on exile, over 1000 still in prison including their opponent….”, Hon. Awudu Mbaya, SDF member of the national assembly told this reporter as he and his colleagues walked out of the hemicycle.
However, the presence of the former Ivorian rebel instead received a standing ovation from CPDM Members of the National Assembly.
Cameroon’s national assembly speaker, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril who expressed disappointment over the walk out revealed that he spent two hours with the opposition lawmakers persuading them not to disrupt the plenary session. But as soon as the speaker acknowledged the presence of his Ivorian colleague, the SDF MNA left the hemicycle immediately.
“The speaker first told us that Soro is not going to take the floor; after he said Soro is going to read his speech half way, and later said again that the president of the republic has ordered that since Soro is already here, we should allow him to make his speech in order not to cause a diplomatic incident”, SDF MNA, Hon. Awudu explained.
The SDF MP and bureau member of the lower house of parliament expatiated that as the peoples’ representatives, they are doing what is good for the people and not what someone dictates on them.
“So the action we took is in the interest of the people. We are convinced that the action we took is in the interest of the people who elected us”.

SDF walk out is show of democracy—Soro

Addressing members of the national assembly of Cameroon, Ivorian assembly speaker, Hon. Guillaume Soro described the walk out of the opposition MNA as a show of advanced democracy.
Soro revealed that he wasn’t disturbed by the walkout as his 42 years on earth has not been a bed of roses.
The 42 years old politician said he was happy to be national assembly speaker of the Cote d’Ivoire and join the club of African assembly speakers where Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, Cameroon’s house speaker is dean after spending over 44years in the hemicycle.
“Apprentices like us have a lot to learn from our dean”, Soro said.
Hon. Soro said he is Cameroon to tighten parliamentary relations between Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire and also to share his true pan-African philosophy.
He questioned whether those Ivorians who massacred their Burkinabes and Malians brothers were pan- Africanists.
Coming back to the October/November 2010 presidential elections in Cote d’Ivoire, the national assembly speaker vehemently said Gbagbo did not win the elections. He explained that there are three big political parties in his country and it was not logical for Gbagbo to claim victory when two of the three big parties merged and stood against him.

SDF calls for release of Gbagbo

In a release signed by the SDF parliamentary group leader, Hon. Joseph Banadzem after they walked out on the Ivorian house speaker, the SDF called on the Ivorian assembly speaker to immediately and publicly take position by calling for the immediate liberation of all Ivorian political prisoners at the Hague and in Cote d’Ivoire and especially president Laurent Gbagbo “against whom the international Criminal court has been unable to build a case”.
The SDF described the visit of Guillaume Soro as an attempt by the CPDM regime to legitimize through the representatives of the Cameroonian people, “the architect of the emanation of political violence in Cote d’Ivoire in order to continue to maintain thousands of political prisoners and shy away from genuine reconciliation and peace”.
The SDF in the release rejected Soro’s rise to power and his method of government which they say consists in the imprisonment and exiling of his political adversaries.
“We therefore refuse the attempt to project Mr. Soro as a model for Cameroonian and those of Africa in general”, the release reads.
“If you read his profile from when he was a student up to this material moment, he has been a rebel. So he is coming to Cameroon to teach our youths how to rebel against a stable and duly elected government. SDF had the option to do this in 1992 but we did not do that because we don’t want to put our country into blood shed. When you start, it is very difficult to repair and we do not want to start war in our nation”, Hon. Awudu Mbaya told this reporter.
By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde