The Tribune

THE story of Lanisha Rolle’s time in the public eye has been, it’s fair to say, a turbulent one.

Yesterday, it came to a head, with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis accepting her resignation from her ministerial post after earlier ordering a lockdown of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.

An internal audit of the ministry had already raised concerns, noting “certain matters have been brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and are under investigation”.

Matters took a surreal turn yesterday after the minister’s father showed up outside Cabinet and condemned Dr Minnis, asking “Where is your respect for people who helped you?”

Mrs Rolle has had a habit of finding trouble. Even before being elected, she found herself attracting attention after a recording of her talking to Lincoln Bain surfaced with her criticising Loretta Butler-Turner. Prior to that, she had criticised Mrs Butler-Turner in a radio interview.

Later, she became Minister of Social Services and prompted a backlash when she said that marital rape was a “private issue”.

A reshuffle saw her moved to Youth, Sports and Culture – and at a Youth Parliament event, she handed out commemorative pins bearing her image. Dr Minnis ordered her to repay the government for the cost.

More than that, wherever she went she seemed to ruffle feathers, getting into a row with Junkanoo groups, and she is reportedly linked with the departure of a number of high-ranking officials.

Seeing the response of people who once worked with her has been telling. Few seemed to be sad to see her go.

As Oscar Wilde wrote, some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Mrs Rolle appears too often to be the latter.

It has been hard to see what she brought to the table. Other than her loyalty to Dr Minnis when his leadership was being challenged, she has more often attracted criticism or alienated others.

Now her ministry faces investigation – and this is a true test for the Minnis administration. If the investigation reveals any wrongdoing, Dr Minnis will need to stand up to the promise he made on the campaign trail to be “intolerant of corruption”.

He said in 2016: “Bahamians deserve better. They deserve a government focused on helping them and working towards making their lives better – not a government focused on helping themselves and their friends at the expense of all the people.”

He promised to “hold government accountable to the people”. He also promised – though it never materialised – “a recall system for poorly performing MPs – to ensure that MPs faithfully serve the people who elected them”.

One other word featured prominently in all of those promises – transparency. That is what the public must expect now. Whatever the internal audit shows should be made public – and if that leads to a police investigation, nothing must stand in the way or interfere with the course of that probe.

That is what the Bahamian public deserve – so they can understand the seriousness of the situation. It is also what Mrs Rolle deserves – so that she can address the evidence too and hold her head high if her ministry under her stewardship has done nothing wrong.

Whatever happens next, there remain many questions about how we got to this point – and a government truly committed to transparency owes the public answers.