Four years of failed governance

May 10th marks four years of the worst government in the history of this country.

It’s campaign time, so the FNM is trying to bury their mistakes, make excuses for their failures, and offer shiny new promises to Bahamians.

In 2017, Hubert Minnis told Bahamians it would be “the people’s time”.

After four years of special deals for the wealthy and connected, and higher taxes and lots of pain for everyone else, Minnis is now saying in his next term, he will focus on the poor.

The FNM’s new campaign slogan is: “Next time, it will be the people’s time”.

And such is his disrespect for your intelligence, my fellow Bahamians, that he is counting on you forgetting what you’ve seen with your own eyes and believing him all over again.

We call this version of Hubert Minnis “campaign Minnis”. He emerges every few years to promise he cares about you. But it’s not going to work this time because Bahamians have had a chance to compare “campaign Minnis” to real Minnis.

Campaign Minnis said he would work for the small man, real Minnis came in and raised VAT – while cutting taxes for his wealthy friends.

Campaign Minnis said he would set a fixed date for elections – real Minnis laughs at Bahamians who believed him, and says he’ll do it in his next term – just like next term he’s going to finally care about the poor.

Campaign Minnis said Grand Bahama would become a center for international filmmaking and that Bahamian business owners would get the same investment incentives and concessions as foreigners.

Real Minnis made sure none of that happened.

Campaign Minnis promised fiscal responsibility – real Minnis presides over a government that never makes the fiscal targets they set themselves, and that has borrowed $2 billion every year with no new schools or clinics to show for it.

Campaign Minnis said he would work for you, but real Minnis cut funding to vital government programs and sent Bahamians home to the unemployment line. 

And never forget this: May 10, 2017 is not just the anniversary of the day Hubert Minnis became prime minister; it’s the anniversary of the moment the FNM stopped caring about transparency in government.

Because while campaign Minnis promised transparency, real Minnis is still hiding the details of the Oban scandal, still hiding the post office contract, still hiding the details of who got what contract in the pandemic, still not telling us why their minister of youth, sports and culture resigned.

In 2017, they promised it would be “the people’s time” and four years later, no one has benefited more from this FNM government than their elite inner circle and no one has suffered more than the everyday Bahamian man and woman.

As another election approaches, campaign Minnis is doing the only thing he’s truly good at: making promises he has no intentions of keeping.

He wants more time in office – but more time isn’t going to help – more time isn’t going to turn his Cabinet of timid and compliant yes-men into a Cabinet of ministers working for the people.

More time won’t turn Minnis into someone who truly cares about people, only one who just says he does at election time.

It’s time for change – time for a leader who has cared about Bahamians his entire life, a leader who has mentored and helped Bahamians across the country. It’s time for a team that combines experienced leaders with new ones, ready to make change on day one. It’s time for a party that has a comprehensive economic plan, one that will bring big changes, not small ones, to the country, so we can build a more dynamic, more inclusive economy – one that works for everyone.

— Zane Lightbourne

PLP Candidate in Yamacraw Constituency

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/four-years-of-failed-governance/