The Tribune

TWO national leaders spoke yesterday about the omicron variant of COVID-19. One, a current Prime Minister, the other a former one.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a national address in which he warned of the dangers of the new variant, saying: “No one should be in doubt – there is a tidal wave of omicron coming.”

A tidal wave. And we should know from experience by now that those waves will wash around the world, and reach our shores too. It happened with the original virus, it happened with the delta variant, there’s no reason to think it won’t happen with the omicron variant.

The former leader to speak yesterday was former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis – to warn that we had made a “grave mistake” by removing the travel health visa requirement for Bahamians and residents returning to the country.

The reason, he warns, is that the data from the visa was an important tool in contact tracing.

More than that, the system used with the visa helped to spot fraudulent tests.

In other words, it helped to screen to keep the virus out – and if the virus came in, it helped to track it.

As it stands, we have removed that, we have lifted lockdowns and curfews – and we have yet to put in place the promised free testing the PLP pledged on the campaign trail. We don’t have the limitations in place to stop the spread, we don’t have the visa to help tracking, and we don’t have the tests.

And, as Prime Minister Johnson says, there’s a tidal wave out there.

There is good news, for us at least, in that the tidal wave is not yet here. There is also good news, in that it seems that so far the indications are that omicron is less deadly than its delta predecessor, although it seems to spread more easily.

This is not comforting to the extent that we can ignore it – but it does mean we have the time to prepare for when it does arrive here.

So the question now becomes what are we doing to prepare for it?

It seems the time has come for another national leader to explain what the plan for dealing with omicron is, a national leader who has been fairly quiet on the issue of the pandemic so far – Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

What’s the plan, Mr Davis?

DNA change

The DNA is without a leader again. After leading the party to the same number of seats won by her predecessors – none – Arinthia Komolafe is stepping down.

She describes third party politics as “brutal” and “extremely difficult” and says she put her own money into funding the DNA campaign.

That campaign saw the DNA fail to win a seat, and finish far behind the FNM and the PLP, while fielding some candidates who raised eyebrows on social media for questionable policy suggestions.

Mrs Komolafe has been an intelligent voice in the political world, however – but the curious thing is not just that she’s quitting as DNA leader but that she’s considering a political future having previously had offers to join the FNM and the PLP.

When asked if she would consider an offer from other parties, she said she would pray and meditate on it but wouldn’t rule it out.

She said: “For me, politics has always been a vehicle. It is a vehicle to bring forth a vision that I’ve been carrying for years – for where I feel this country should go and needs to be.”

The difficulty the DNA has faced since its inception is that it may have created a brand but it really failed to show policies that marked it out as different from the other parties.

If our political world is such that people can just move between parties and the choice of one is the same as the other, where are the real policies people are fighting for? Where are the beliefs that take a party in one direction over the other?

Mrs Komolafe’s future decisions might not just show us where her politics lie, but also the state of our political landscape.