The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins has said he will not seek a constituency nomination from the Free National Movement (FNM) if Dr Hubert Minnis is re-elected as leader at next month’s convention.

Dr Rollins explained that he could not expect to campaign alongside Dr Minnis given his critique of the FNM leader’s capacity for leadership and his role in the push for an early convention.

“I’ve told persons in the FNM,” he said, “let us be frank here. Clearly Dr Minnis, the leader of the FNM, did not want there to be an early convention in the FNM. If Dr Minnis is re-elected as leader it is untenable for me to seek to run for a nomination.”

Dr Rollins said: “I don’t believe that having expressed the views that I have that members of the FNM, whether frontline or supporters, ought to expect me to go on a platform and try to convince the Bahamian people that somehow I have changed my mind and had some view that he is now capable of doing a job that I have expressed some doubt in his capacity to do.”

In a series of statements last month, Dr Rollins openly criticised Dr Minnis and his supporters, stating that the leader had no substance or vision for the country. He has challenged that whether Dr Minnis has what it takes to be prime minister will depend on if he can convince the party that he is the “most fit” to lead at a convention.

His outspoken stance on the FNM’s leadership struggles positioned him at the centre of renewed efforts by the majority of the FNM’s parliamentary team to engender an earlier convention date.

Six of the opposition’s 10 MPs - Loretta Butler-Turner, Hubert Chipman, Neko Grant, Richard Lightbourn, Theo Neilly and Dr Rollins - threatened to petition Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling to remove Dr Minnis as leader of the Official Opposition unless the initial November date was brought forward.

In making their case against their leader, the MPs highlighted a myriad of inefficiencies in a memo to the party’s Central Council, including his failure to take command of the party “at almost every turn” despite their repeated efforts to support him.

The convention will now be held in late July.

The Fort Charlotte MP also railed against the government as a guest on radio talk show “The Revolution” with host Juan McCartney on Friday.

Referencing his scathing rebuke of the Christie-led administration during his contribution to the 2016/2107 Budget debate, Dr Rollins’ opined that Mr Christie’s aversion to criticism made him a weak leader who was incapable of making tough decisions.

His highly critical remarks on Wednesday led Mr Christie to apologise for putting the former PLP MP in a position to hold a seat in Parliament.

On Friday, Dr Rollins said: “Never mind the fact that this government owes a huge apology for disastrous four years of government. What they have done is thumb their nose at Bahamian people.”

“If anyone ought to apologise, seeing as the Prime Minister and his government don’t have the character to do that, I should be the one to apologise. For putting the Prime Minister in the position to be back in the seat of power because clearly people would blame me for becoming a part of the PLP to campaign for a man in the party that I thought would never make the same mistakes after the disaster of 2002 to 2007.

“I never in a million years thought they would do the exact same thing between 2012 and 2017,” he added. “Clearly I was sadly mistaken.”