The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DNA Leader Branville McCartney yesterday questioned the Free National Movement’s decision to make Bamboo Town MP Renward Wells leader of opposition business in the House of Assembly despite not knowing the full story surrounding his controversial signing of a $650m letter of intent with Stellar Waste to Energy while a member of the Progressive Liberal Party.

Mr McCartney, while delivering a scathing attack on the FNM, questioned Mr Wells’ newest appointment, as he suggested it was ironic given the FNM’s many calls for Mr Wells to be fired from his post as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works when the letter of intent (LOI) controversy first arose. Mr McCartney also questioned if - now that Mr Wells is leader of opposition business - FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis is “going to push that issue regarding the LOI so that we all know what transpired”.

Mr McCartney also said that Mr Wells’ appointment only occurred because Dr Minnis “didn’t have anybody else to appoint as leader of opposition business.”

The post was first offered to Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner after the FNM’s bitter convention at the end of July. She declined that offer. Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant resigned from the post last week, days after it was revealed that Mrs Butler-Turner had been offered the job.

Mr McCartney also criticised the FNM for all of its “continuous infighting,” charging that the country “would be in problems” should the FNM win the next election.

He made his statements while a guest on 96.9 FM talk show “The Revolution” with host Juan McCartney yesterday afternoon.

Mr Wells joined the FNM last November, nearly a year after being fired by Prime Minister Perry Christie from his post for signing the LOI to have a waste-to-energy facility built at the city dump without Cabinet approval.

When the controversy was first revealed, Dr Minnis told The Tribune that he and the FNM would not rest until Mr Wells was removed as parliamentary secretary.

“Now since Renward Wells is indeed now the leader of opposition business, I’m wondering if (Dr Minnis) is going to push that issue regarding the LOI so that we all know what transpired,” Mr McCartney said yesterday. “Dr Minnis was adamant (at the time). He was calling for Renward Wells’ resignation. Now you have the deputy leader of the FNM saying that he has a ‘great future’ in this party and that his ‘future is bright in politics.’

“But a few months ago they were calling for Renward Wells’ resignation. This is the FNM that you’re dealing with today. This is the type of party that you have. This is the silliness that’s going on. The bottom line is this - Dr Minnis didn’t have a choice; he didn’t have anybody else to appoint as leader of opposition business.

“Because it’s my understanding that (Hubert Chipman), Richard (Lightbourn) and Theo (Neilly) probably will not be running anymore. So he only had Edison, Neko who resigned, and Loretta Butler-Turner. He had no other choice. That’s the FNM that you’re dealing with.”

Mr McCartney then turned his attention to the internal bickering in the Official Opposition.

He singled out Mrs Butler-Turner, whom he called a “quitter” for waging a “full campaign against the leader of the party” ahead of the FNM’s recent convention, only to “quit” prior to the conclusion of the three-day event.

“I know she says that she never loses, she just learns,” Mr McCartney said. “Well she also quits, and a quitter could never be winner. Winners never quit. And that was utterly disappointing to see, utterly disappointing when she quit the race, because the reality is even if she was not successful, she ought to have gone straight through with it.”

He added: “All through the last four and a half years, continuous infighting. That’s not going to change within the next nine months. You think Loretta and Dr Minnis and (Richard Lightbourn) and (Hubert Chipman) and all those boys are going to hug and make up? If they do it’s not going to be genuine, and the Bahamian people ought to look at that and see if that’s the kind of government that they want. Can you imagine putting them in the seat of governance, and they have this type of party? Can you imagine the type of eruption that can happen with this country if the FNM in the way they are constituted now were to win? We would be in problems.”

Mr McCartney quit the FNM in 2011 and later formed the Democratic National Alliance.