By CELESTE NIXON

Tribune Staff Reporter

cnixon@tribunemedia.net

SENIOR FNMs hit out at the House Speaker for not honouring an alleged agreement with for former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to speak first in Parliament.

Following the abrupt exit of former prime minister Hubert Ingraham from Parliament yesterday, Opposition Leader Dr Hubert Minnis defended Mr Ingraham’s decision claiming an agreement to allow him to speak at the start of the session was broken. 

He said: “I think Hubert Ingraham is absolutely correct in leaving the House of Assembly, he and the Speaker had a private conversation no one was present at that meeting – at that point in time the speaker had agreed, he had made a commitment that he would allow Hubert Ingraham to speak early on the agenda outside of an agenda item, that was the agreement. Obviously the PLP must have gotten to the Speaker because he changed his mind.

“He is way down now on the agenda and they would stay there all day making communications to ensure we that we never get to the floor.”

“If you made a commitment I would expect you to be a man, act like a man and follow through with that commitment. Anyone would be upset and subsequently walk out.”

After tendering his resignation in Parliament last week, it was expected that Mr Ingraham would deliver his farewell address at yesterday’s House session. However, Mr Ingraham left shortly after House Speaker Dr Kendal Major read the order to be followed on the agenda, which placed him at Item J on the Order of Business.

When pressed by the media, if the Speaker of the House had the authority to make such an agreement, Dr Minnis said he has domain over the House of Assembly and it should have been his decision.

“He is the Speaker and he runs the House, not Perry Christie and not Bernard Nottage and not Brave Davis, he is the Speaker and he makes the decisions, that’s his domain,” Mr Minnis said.

Speaking outside of Parliament, FNM chairman Charles Maynard said the government disregarded the precedent set by the former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling which allowed him a special sitting of the House of Assembly to say his farewell.

Mr Maynard said: “I think it was a slap in the face because there was an agreement in place between the Speaker and the Member for North Abaco, obviously the Speaker was dictated to by the government to do something differently.”

In response to those claiming Mr Ingraham was not afforded the same opportunity as Sir Lynden because his administration had not given retiring MPs an opportunity to say their farewells, Mr Maynard said after 15 years of service as Prime Minister, Mr Ingraham cannot be compared to regular MP’s.

“Everyone,” he said, “was talking about former members who weren’t allowed to say good bye when retiring and so forth, that is a different can of worms and we are not going to even try and compare the two, we can only compare Hubert Ingraham to Sir Lynden Pindling because they are equals in terms of being prime minister of this country.

“I don’t know what they were afraid of,  I don’t know if they believe he was not deserving of that honour, but the Bahamian people will judge them for it,” said Mr Maynard.

In the afternoon session of the House yesterday, FNM leader Dr Minnis and Deputy leader Loretta Butler-Turner paid tribute to the former Prime Minister and his legacy.

Mrs Butler-Turner said Mr Ingraham will always be remembered for he significant contribution as the greatest “moderniser and reformer” of the modern Bahamas.