BY JOYCE JOHNSON

[Dakar, Senegal, The African Magazine] Members of Cote d’Ivoire’s ruling party, the Rally of the Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace, RHDP, held a moving ceremony today in Abidjan, the West African nation’s largest city and economic hub, to pay homage to the late prime minister, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who died of a massive heart attack on July 8.

The event, which saw the attendance of President Alassane Ouattara and first lady Dominique Ouattara, was attended by party members and officials of all branches of government, while a massive crowd numbering in the thousands watched outside. Many in the crowds wore a t-shirt in honor of the deceased prime minister, with the inscription, “So long AGC” (the late prime minister’s initials, Amadou Gon Coulibaly).

A visibly moved President Ouattara told the press following the event: “It’s with a deep emotion that I presided over the Rally of the Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace’s ceremony to pay homage to Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, along with my spouse.”

The somber event was led by a cabinet minister, Anne Désirée Ouloto, the nation’s minister of Sanitation and Healthiness, lawmaker, founding member of the RHDP, and deputy executive director of the party responsible of external relations.

Ouloto, a skilled orator, called on the audience to win the upcoming presidential election of October 31 for the deceased prime minister who was nominated by the party to contest the said election. “From this day on, we must all also be AGC, lions!” she said, then added:

“I am AGC! What about you? Are you AGC? Ask your neighbor if he is a true AGC. Are you all true AGC? So, if we are true AGC, we must win the election in October 2020 for ADO [President Ouattara’s initials.] Yes, win in October 2020 for ADO. Only at this cost will the tears of our Mama Fatoumata Gon Coulibaly [the late prime minister’s spouse] will dry. And only at this cost will the tears of our sister Assétou Gon, the children and the large Gon Coulibaly family dry. And only at this cost can we comfort our president ADO and his spouse Dominique Ouattara. With AGC, let’s win together the October 2020 election for the president.”

Yesterday, Tuesday, July 14, the nation paid its homage to the late prime minister at the presidential palace in a ceremony attended by cabinet members, traditional chiefs, religious leaders, various heads of public and private institutions, members of the opposition, and members of the civil society. Many in attendance could not hold their tears. But, during today’s ceremony, a self-comforting Ouloto boldly declared:

“This morning, as we hold this big meeting of our party in honor of the illustrious defunct, I am not going to cry. No! Mr. Prime Minister, dear senior brother Amadou Gon Coulibaly, to see Ivorians from all walks of life get together to mourn you, and the laudatory and comforting homage paid to you could not convince me more that you are indeed the best. Yes, Your Excellency President of the Republic, chairman of the RHDP, your son is the best. RHDP militants, do you agree with me that our candidate was the best? Yes, the lion was the best.”

Ouloto went on to give a brief history of the party that she said she joined 26 years ago, swimming against the stream as it were, as the party was then ridiculed by many who called it “the party of the Dioula ethnic group, of the Muslims, of bitter people and non-Ivorians. I was then the rebellious child who dangerously joined the enemy.”

She then recalled the humiliation, arrests and police harassment suffered by the party’s leaders, including its president, Alassane Ouattara, and added:

“Then, with the RHDP, we went to the school of national reconciliation and the living together, to the point of making our party today the largest rallying party, credible, which made it possible for the government to turn our beautiful country into a standing country, working, attractive, and emerging.”

Sounding the sad note of the prime minister’s passing, Ouloto stated:

“Amadou Gon Coulibaly, the lion of the Savanah, has stopped roaring by giving his last breath, at a time nobody could imagine nor foresee it, at the end of an epic that was, all the same, expected to be promising and glorious.”

At the end of the day, the remains of the late prime minster arrived by the presidential plane in Korhogo, his native town in the north, for his burial on Friday in a private ceremony.