'Fugitive' Cameroon MP reappears in parliament

An opposition member of the Cameroon National Assembly, Mr Joseph Wriba. AFRICA REVIEW Photo

What you need to know:

  • The MP later organised a rally in his constituency where he reiterated his stance and urged the over 5,000 people in attendance to support the Anglophone cause.
  • He was nicknamed “Wirbaforce”; an adaptation of William Wilberforce, an English MP who led a movement to end the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

An opposition member of the Cameroon National Assembly who went into hiding over fears of being arrested re-appeared in parliament on Wednesday.
Mr Joseph Wriba disappeared after rumours spread that his parliamentary immunity could be lifted to facilitate his arrest.
The member of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) was last seen in parliament in December 2016.
He reappeared while the House was discussing a bill on the powers, organisation and functioning of the Economic and Social Council of Cameroon.
“Hon Wirba is back from his hideout,” the National Assembly Speaker, Mr Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, announced as the MP made his entry.
When Mr Wirba took to the rostrum minutes later, he announced he was back for the same purpose and ready to continue from where he stopped.
“I am back for the same cause. I have been chased through the bushes for the past three months. Mr Speaker, tell the person who ordered my arrest that I am here, he can come and take me from this National Assembly.
“I wrote two letters to you telling you that there is an order on my head and you did not protect me. I cannot come here and you are discussing the social and economic council when our children are out of school and our lawyers in jail…,” the opposition MP said as the MPs turned rowdy.
When he eventually regained his seat, the Speaker told the house: “Hon Wirba does not know what I have done for him, it is regrettable. It is regrettable that an MP is behaving like this.”
Mr Wirba rose to fame in a standoff in parliament last December when he vented anger against alleged marginalization of Anglophones by the Yaoundé regime
He told parliament that English speaking Cameroonians would henceforth resist any attempt by the overwhelming French government to trample on their rights.
His speech, for which he received a standing ovation from the 180-member chamber, was the first of its kind in Cameroon’s parliamentary history.
The MP later organised a rally in his constituency where he reiterated his stance and urged the over 5,000 people in attendance to support the Anglophone cause.
He was nicknamed “Wirbaforce”; an adaptation of William Wilberforce, an English MP who led a movement to end the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.