The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH he did not get a renomination for his seat, Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn - one of the “gang of six” - said his “differences” with Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis have been resolved, telling persons yesterday to “go elsewhere” if they did not support the party’s leadership.

Mr Lightbourn reiterated his commitment to the FNM, which he said appeared to be “getting its act together”. However, he seemed to express dissatisfaction with the current process used to select candidates.

He lamented that the decision is often political and does not take into account whether the prospective candidate is well known in the area or has a “real connection.”

Speaking on the state of the FNM, and his own political future, Mr Lightbourn said that the party needed to focus on rolling out candidates and policy positions now that the dust had settled on its explosive convention.

His comments as a guest on Kiss FM radio talk show “Ed Fields Live” with host Ed Fields and co-host Rogan Smith.

“I don’t have a great deal of contact with the leader (Dr Minnis), but my exchanges with him are always very pleasant, very respectful,” he said.

“I think we’ve got to the point where he accepts we’ve had our differences and now that the convention was held, it’s been resolved. So if he had any issue with me I think it was simply because I supported someone else. But every political party has to be big enough to accept that.

“As you can see I’m still here, I’m still FNM and I’m going to do everything possible that I can to assist in making sure there is a change in government in this country.”

He suggested that the many challenges facing the government has delayed the announcement of the next general election, and that it has given the FNM a “little breathing space” to regroup.

“The party does seem to be getting its act together and that’s important to get out our candidates and create a policy position of the party on a lot of different issues, which has not been done to this point,” he said.

“The recent addition of the prospective candidates was a plus for the party, it suggests that we are now getting it together. I think that it’s now moving forward. To some degree, we’ve resolved the internal issues that have been plaguing the party for some years now, and after the convention, while it wasn’t the huge success that we would have hoped nevertheless it has settled the dust.

“The leader has been confirmed and so if you’re going to move forward with the party, if you don’t accept the leader then you need to go elsewhere. But I think on the whole people have accepted the decision that has been taken,” he added.

The Montagu MP was among the six FNM members of Parliament that campaigned strongly for the removal of Dr Minnis as leader, at one point threatening to oust him as Official Opposition leader in the House of Assembly if an early convention was not called.

In addition to Mr Lightbourn, the group included St Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, North Eleuthera MP Theo Neilly, Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner, Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant and Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins.

Yesterday, Mr Lightbourn said the dissent was a “necessary exercise.”

“I think that that was a necessary exercise,” he said. “I agree that it maybe didn’t look too pretty to some people from the outside, but nevertheless it’s been resolved and people have to accept that you do have differences within any political organisation, perhaps the government is better at keeping secrets to itself, but people know, it’s a small town you know what’s happening.”

It has been suggested that Mr Lightbourn’s blunder during his speech at the FNM’s national’s convention in late July cost him a nomination.

Mr Lightbourn, on the second night of the convention while attempting to offer a solution for the country’s rising crime trends, proposed state-sponsored sterilisation of unwed women with more than two children. Mr Lightbourn prefaced the controversial suggestion with a generalisation that children born in unstable family situations often grow to participate in criminal activities.

Mr Lightbourn immediately apologised for his statement and the FNM distanced the party from the Montagu MP’s proposal, stating that the party did not believe in restricting the reproductive rights of anyone.

When asked whether he felt those comments affected his failed renomination bid, Mr Lightbourn yesterday said: “If it is, I don’t think it should be. I think it did send off a few surprises at the convention, it was certainly the wrong place to make such a statement and the wrong place to consider the issue that I was really seeking to address.”

Earlier this month, Mr Lightbourn told The Nassau Guardian that he was not going to be a candidate for the FNM in the next election, although days earlier he had said he wanted to be ratified. Prominent businessman Dionisio D’Aguilar is rumoured to be the party’s choice for the constituency instead.