Attorney general must resign

Dear Editor,

 

We profess to follow the Westminster system in our wonderful nation. Under that system, there are certain constitutional conventions that should be observed.

One of these constitutional conventions is that a minister is responsible for the management of his/her particular ministry. As such, any blunders made, of a highly charged policy issue, requires that minister to offer his/her resignation or be fired by the prime minister.

The attorney general is the premier legal advisor to the government of the day. If he/she and his/her legal officers make a bad judgment call and it causes the administration gross embarrassment, the attorney general MUST resign or be fired.

I have long held that the current holder of this office is known to be a ‘good’ Bahamian who I am sure loves the nation just as much as anyone else.

However, he led the public prosecutions, or were they persecutions, of former parliamentarians Shane Gibson and Frank Smith with great fanfare and apparent glee. Lo and behold, both cases were tossed and the accused were acquitted. The prosecutions were a major blunder.

He has refused to give an accounting of just how much public funds were wasted on those cases.

Now we have the spectacle of his having to admit that he and his office were grossly negligent in failing to draft the appropriate resolution to extend the emergency proclamation. He says that he is sorry.

The prime minister should have required /demanded his resignation.

It is what it is, however, and we will never see that happening.

Come the next general election, however, they will all be gone.

 

— Ortland H. Bodie Jr. 

 

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/07/03/attorney-general-must-resign/