Dear Editor,
Now that Nagamootoo is exclusively Prime Minister of Information and not permitted to chair cabinet meetings, promised under the Cummingsburg Accord, has he moved up a notch? Subsequent to the PNC-AFC coalition’s 2015 ascendency to government, Raphael Trotman was named as Minister for Governance in David “Nassau” Granger’s Office of the President. Later he was promoted as Minister of Natural Resources.
Surprising was a report in another section of the media on April 4, 2016 that a team from the US State Department Wednesday met Nagamootoo as Prime Minister, “to discuss regulatory planning for the oil and gas sector” in Guyana. The State Department’s Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative (EGCI) programme apparently discussed providing technical and capacity building assistance to Guyana now on the verge of becoming an oil and gas producer.
The report said the US “team will work closely with the Prime Minister who has oversight of governance matters; the Ministry of Natural Resources, within whose ambit rests responsibility for oil and gas; and various state agencies and ministries.”
Has Trotman lost his mojo and been cut down to size for his absence at the AFC leadership retreat which issued a blistering censure of the APNU-AFC coalition for corruption subsequently triggering Nigel Hughes (deferred) resignation? It must be recalled that consequent to Trotman’s secret rendezvous with David “this is Nassau” Granger which hatched their 2005 master plan in The Bahamas to form the AFC in 2006, Trotman was six years later on the rise as Speaker after the 2011 elections.
The AFC’s creation successfully reunited, harnessed and prevented disgruntled former PNC supporters from joining up with the PPP/C. It easily co-opted disgruntled PPP/C critics like Khemraj Ramjattan by splitting them off that negligent party, Trotman quickly became the darling prodigal son who quite naturally was returned to PNC embrace later.
The combined APNU-AFC opposition was able to get a one seat majority after the 2011 elections thanks to PPP/C negligence of their base constituency. Entitled to name the Speaker, Opposition Leader “Nassau” Granger promptly rejected Trotman’s own AFC nominated candidate of the PPP/C’s absconding Moses Nagamootoo. How was Trotman able to so easily become the preferred choice for services rendered to become Speaker was no secret any longer.
While an ambitious Nagamootoo has claimed the PPP/C did not elect him as their party leader because he was not Hindu enough, he has failed miserably to explain why both non Hindus Donald Ramotar and Clement Rohee actually became the PPP/C’s President and General Secretary.
Why was Nagamootoo again flushed away and fumigated as Speaker by both the PNC and AFC leadership? If he is secretly viewed by his colleagues as a loose cannon why is he in charge of natural resources negotiations for Guyana?
Respectfully,
Sultan Mohamed
