Ivorian political analyst Gouza Nahounou: “Time for Soro, a bad boy, to pay the price.”

BY PETER SESAY

In an exclusive interview with The African about the charges leveled by the Ivorian government against former speaker of the Ivorian parliament, Guillaume Soro, Gouza Nahounou, a well-known Paris-based Ivorian analyst of her country’s politics, blasted Soro saying “he’s solely responsible for the s..t he has created.”

Gouza Nahounou, a political analyst and activist who only recently put together a massive charity event benefitting 2,000 disadvantaged children back home in Cote d’Ivoire, hosts a regularly-scheduled show on Facebook that is watched and liked by thousands of viewers. A regular commentator on political developments in Cote d’Ivoire for “The African,” she weighed in on the arrest warrant. “Soro likes to feel sorry for himself, as if everyone should feel the same way. He’s solely responsible for this s..t. He wanted to play with fire, like a bad and careless boy. It’s time for him to pay the price,” Nahounou flatly tells The African.

Soro served as former President Gbagbo’s prime minister and later (though briefly) as President Ouattara’s prime minister before assuming the speakership (a position from which he spectacularly stepped down in February.) But, Nahounou draws a sharp contrast between those two heads of state: “Alassane Ouattara is not Laurent Gbagbo. Soro [expletive] Gbagbo, but Gbagbo could do nothing [expletive]. By contrast, Ouattara is a statesman, and the state is responsible for protecting its territory for the sake of the population’s safety. What was Soro expecting? Cote d’Ivoire is not at the mercy of Mr. Soro, and the Ivorians are not his sheep,” Nahounou slams. She then wonders: “Where are Soro’s intellectual allies now? I hope they will join him in his [prison] cell.”

In several past comments about major political developments in Cote d’Ivoire, such as the xenophobic incidents that marred the October 2018 local and regional elections, Nahounou squarely pointed to Soro’s responsibility: “I personally hold [former President] Bedie and Soro responsible for this mess in Cote d’Ivoire,” she said in a one-hour-twenty-three-minute-long show of the day titled “Idées de Paix” (Ideas of Peace)

Now that Soro faces the music (to paraphrase Nahounou,) the analyst recalls her multiple past efforts to bring the now-embattled former speaker to reason: “In several of my videos, I called on Mr. Soro to respect the republic and its democratic values. Soro is an ill-behaved boy. Now it’s time for him to face the music. Just that.”