Michael Pintard 
Dr. Hubert Minnis
By Fred Sturrup | GB News Editor | [email protected]
At some point, those who love and cherish the political organization called the Free National Movement (FNM) would be better off coming to the realization that Dr. Hubert Minnis is certainly not ideal for the transformation of the party.
He is just bad news. This is understood to so many people in this country, including a lot of FNMs. The man can easily be categorized as a pariah. He is just not a good fit in Bahamian politics today. Dr. Minnis is blamed widely, and one could say justifiably so for the devastating loss suffered by the FNM against the now governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) on September 16, 2021.
On November 27, 2021, the FNM held a one-day convention for the leadership. There was clearly not enough support from within the party for him to seek to continue to lead. He recognized the dilemma and sat out the election. Contesting for the new leadership were Michael Pintard, Iram Lewis, and Kwasi Thompson; all ministers from the Minnis Cabinet.
While Lewis and Thompson were known to be quite in favor of Dr. Minnis, Pintard was another matter. He never seemed intimidated by or overly impressed with Dr. Minnis, and was not seen as one of the former prime minister’s favorites in the Cabinet. In fact, it was said that Dr. Minnis did not want to allow the ratification of Pintard to run on an FNM ticket in the most recent general elections. He came to Grand Bahama while the topic of candidates was high on the party’s agenda. I was told that he met overwhelming support in Marco City for the sitting MP.
The FNMs in Marco City, thus, changed the course of history. Pintard was ratified, won handily against PLP Curt Hollingsworth, and became the leading figure at the November 27th one-day leadership affair. So, the FNM ended up with a (now) moderate/intellectual Pintard as opposed to an erratic/unpopular individual at the helm.
And, this is why the FNM faces a conundrum.
On the one hand, there is the leader Pintard with a sober approach much different from the raucous presentations of Dr. Minnis. The two styles will never blend and at this stage in trying to regain the confidence of the people, it just makes sense for the FNM to go in a different direction than the one that led to disaster.Pintard can transform the FNM. However, the job is made excessively more difficult if as a rule during every House of Assembly session there is this braying going on that is counter to the desired image-changing for the FNM.
When Pintard stands up, he is 100 times more acceptable in my view because of his factual offerings as he builds a new image for the FNM; one surely those in the FNM family hope will enable the people of The Bahamas to embrace them in national leadership once again.
At this moment in time and going forward, I submit that Dr. Hubert Alexander Minnis is not a good ingredient for the FNM pot.