I think Mr Symonette should resign for making an issue of this. Mr. Bell did a very noble gesture in honour of the deceased. It's not as though it will become a frequent occurrence, it has special circumstances on this occasion.

You cannot be serious with this comment. You have to be making an April Fool's joke.

PLP grand standing and conferring citizenship at a Haitian funeral is nothing but show boating and pandering to the illegal political base. Mr Bell knows there is a place for conferring citizenship according to the immigration act so why break the rules. No wonder the flood gates are open and foreigners think the Bahamas is a Banana republic, just look at the PLP lawyer who accepted the 1 million to fast track FTX business license and arrival to the Bahamas. i see many court cases in the making soon

Former crown minister Brent Symonette should know that as long as the siblings of the late Comrade Franck Racine,---- Did swears or solemnly affirmed their allegiance to the King as Sovereign — Over all 1200 Out islands and its Cays' and Towns' ... They individually are now as much a conferred upon citizen as is "Pop" Symonette's, boy, Brent.– 'Aye.' 'Nay?'

Ask Loftus Roker what he thinks. Personally, for me, it looks like grandstanding.

Bell is a rogue Minister who is going to bring down the PLP government by 2026.

Lord, let it come quickly ........

Rather than us throwing aspersions, let us see if we can have real dialogue that pushes change.

You claim Symonette to be despicable in calling it irregluar. What is the law that we can point to to show what Bell did was illegal and not irregular?

I believe Bell is totally wrong, but let's see if we can bring out the illegal, and then have a ground swell to ensure this act is taken seriously

You must either be kidding or be of Haitian descent !! LOL

Again, dialogue.

If you seek to try throw disparaging remarks, then it becomes clear you are deflecting and have no actual proof to back up what you are saying.

We only do change when we can produce the evidence and then speak truth to power.

For decades we've been getting plenty of useless dialogue from our corrupt politicians. The fact that you want more dialogue on this particular matter only serves to tell me you wouldn't know what evidence is if it whacked you broadside your head. By the way, your Haitian roots have been all too evident in many of your postings to this website.

Bell should not have done it. I'm baffled at w.d hat he expected to achieve other than theatrics. It takes time to plan a funeral, he could have handed over the documents from his office like normal anytime between the gentlemans death and the funeral. It was a dumb move.

Keith Bell was never the brightest crayon in the box but he continues to do stupid stuff to draw attention to his ignorance and lackluster performance in his various offices. Like parking the government vehicle if front of banks in areas clearly marked and even with cones as ‘ no parking Keith Bell, you too fool!’

He's a well known crook, period!

Or saying he will make the minimum wage, which is now $260 a livable wage, which is about $$900 to $1,200 depending on where you live in The Bahamas.

This is a total shyt show starring Brent Symonett, Keith Bell, and any number of skeletons on both sides of the aisle.

Bell and Symonett could give a damn about what the people think.

We need change asap!

Has Brave fired Bell yet????

That says it all ........

No surprise here. Every foreigner in the land must have Keith Bell's personal contact and they brag about it. How could you put out a statement saying the man came to the Bahamas in the 1990's without saying "HOW" he came. The illegals know they only need to make it here and its just a matter of time before the Government comes looking for them for citizenship for votes. The Bahamas has long been for sale and this just confirms it.

Ok do not let Brent Symnonette make you color blind: from what we know the father of two young children who had lived many years in this country and was suffering from a possible terminal illness appealed to the Foreign Affairs Minister to look favorably on his application for citizenship. Since no one raised concerns to the contrary, this man qualified and Keith Bell swore him in as a Bahamian citizen. So the new interpretation of the law says ‘the children of a Bahamian father born to a foreign woman are BAHAMIAN, periodd. So Keith Bell granted these two children citizenship. So they are no longer half Haitians but full Bahamians. And this was the concern of the dying father. So Keith Bell says what the heck, can’t make the whole family Bahamian and leave the ma out in the cold. Da pa dead and she may be subject to deportation, putting the minor children welfare in jeopardy. So he granted the Haitian woman citizenship and she is now fully Bahamian. Keith Bell had full legal right to do so. The only problem is that he should have kept government business in the government office and not try gain political miles from it.
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Now less than two weeks ago Brent (post office in da mall) Symnonette was in the news letting people know that his two daughters were somewhere around the world shack in up with unmarried boyfriends. Mr Pave da Airy Brent says Bahamian immigration laws must be changed so that if his shacking up daughters want to bring their live-in boyfriends home to The Bahamas, the boyfriends who doesn’t want to own the cows, but get the milkshakes for free, can live and work in the Bahamas while they get free native milk.

Just checking, if someone is given Bahamian citizenship does that mean their children already born are automatically Bahamian, or is it only the ones born after the father received it?

The law requires that there be a warm blooded live Bahamian father at the time of the birth of his child **and also** at the time of the application that must be made for the child to be properly registered as a Bahamian citizen. The Constitution of The Bahamas does not allow the non-Bahamian child of a deceased Bahamian father to inherit Bahamian citizenship from a cold dead corpse.

The citizenship ceremony should not have been done at the funeral. The funeral itself should have been a solemn event. This was intended for political theatrics Every thing in this country is simply a game.

The minister in a more advanced country would have been reprimanded or fired from his cabinet position for this stunt.

"When there are parliamentry duties to be done, to be done, An ex-policeman is not the clever one, clever one." Apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan. But really; what a total bell-end.

Cheapus they just come out and say that Bahamians are second class citizens who need to ride the back of the bus in this country.