The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Once again, Minister of Education Glenys Hanna Martin has been a terrible disappointment.

Speaking on the selection of the new president of the University of The Bahamas, she left the impression that the choice was made by the former government. The PLP made the final decision after it came to office. She is the sitting Minister of Education.

If the PLP wanted a different president, they could have reopened the search and the process. They could have chosen Dr Ian Strachan. But they didn’t! This is the PLP’s final decision and choice.

The new chair of the board of UB, Allyson Maynard Gibson, stated in the press that the new president was the best choice in terms of helping the university with its international accreditation process.

Mrs Hanna Martin is being hypocritical and disingenuous. She is trying to have it both ways. Rather than taking responsibility for the decision, she is blaming the FNM. She was also intemperate in her remarks, and, in my, view rude and unwelcoming in her tone toward the new president.

The incoming president isn’t even in the chair yet and Mrs Hanna Martin says we are going to move to get a Bahamian as soon as possible.

If the new president were hired under the FNM, Mrs Hanna Martin would have gone on one of her well-known rampages coughing up criticism of the decision.

But now that she is Minister of Education she is trying to distance herself from the decision made by the PLP.

This is a bad example to school children in terms of accepting responsibility for one’s decisions. The country deserves better than such behaviour.

Now that the president is chosen let us welcome him with good Bahamian hospitality and respect. I hope that Mrs. Hanna Martin will also treat him with good manners and respectfully.

UB STAKEHOLDER

Nassau

March 19, 2022