GUEST COMMENTARY: BY NICOLE ROBERTS
BAHAMAS CHRONICLE EDITOR’S NOTE: Nicole Roberts, a Bahamian who lives in London, England, shared this introspective post on Facebook that I decided to share as a Guest Commentary with readers of my Washington, D.C. – based online publication, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean,
LONDON, England, May 13, 2024 — Why not Minnis? Politics is full of second chances. History is replete with instances where former leaders have made a return to the political forefront. One of the most famous “second chances” was Sir Winston Churchill.
Churchill served as Prime Minister of Great Britain between 1940 to 1945. He was defeated in the polls in 1945, but returned again, rising from the ashes, given a “second chance” as Prime Minister from 1951 to 1955.
In 2013, Bahamas PLP Prime Minister Perry Gladstone Christie, through his own personal admissions and political mandate, was dubbed “The Second Chance Prime Minister”.
In September 2013, PLP Prime Minister Christie said in an address to the Urban Renewal/Terreve College GED programme in Grand Bahama… “Because I am who I am, I believe in the redemptive power of second chances.” He was put out of school at aged 14. They said he could not learn.
Significantly, Christie’s second chances reminisces extend far beyond the follies of boyhood. His second chances became significant political gambles. Christie was once expelled from the PLP, returned to the fold, became leader of the Party and Prime Minister in non-consecutive terms. Second chances!!
For former Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, the question of ‘second chances’ becomes, “Has he learnt?” Has Minnis learned from the brutal rough and tough political lessons of his administration?
Will Minnis get a second chance? Only time will tell, but if he does, it will be one of the most interesting historical “second chances” in Bahamian history.
