EDITOR, The Tribune.

I WAS dismayed after listening to former staunched Free National Movement supporter Natasha Darville list her reasons for the fall-out between Central Grand Bahama MP Iram Lewis and that area’s constituency association on Shenique Miller’s Beyond the Headlines program.

According to Darville, the constituency association turned against Lewis after he had launched a campaign for the FNM leadership in late 2021. At the time, former FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis was coerced into resigning after his party suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of the Progressive Liberal Party in September 2021. I am at a loss for words in attempting to make sense of why was there a breakdown in Lewis’ relationship with FNM leader Michael Pintard, who wasn’t even the leader at that time. According to Darville, after Pintard won the FNM leadership race Lewis went to him and assured him of his support moving forward. I have no reason to doubt Lewis’ sincerity. If Darville’s account of what led Lewis to defect from the FNM to the Coalition of Independents is right, then it would mean that the atmosphere within the FNM became too hostile and unbearable for Lewis to remain. He became persona non grata.

Darville has been an FNM for decades. The fact that she is now speaking out against the party she has loved for most of her life should be concerning to party insiders. Based on her account to Miller, I am now led to question the accuracy of the words of executives of the Central Grand Bahama constituency association to The Nassau Guardian.

According to a representative of this association, Central Grand Bahama constituents wanted Lewis gone because “he was an absent member of Parliament who was not as visible in the community as prior representatives.”

I am not buying this explanation to The Nassau Guardian. You see, Lewis was the architect of the farmers festival at the International Bazaar every other weekend, which gave struggling Grand Bahamians the opportunity to earn money by selling their garden produce, juices or cooked food as vendors. Lewis was also behind the backyard farming initiative in Freeport in which he was a fierce advocate for. He also held annual Christmas parties and back to school events for the kids in his constituency. I also personally know of him donating to a group of Bahamian missionaries and he was very accessible to his constituents. If Lewis does not deserve to be reelected, then who does? Exactly what standard are we using to gauge Lewis with? Who are these constituents who want Lewis gone? Thou- sands of Grand Bahamians are disillusioned about that island’s economy. Are we going to scapegoat Lewis, who has been an MP since 2017, for a recession that began about 16 years before he entered Parliament?

The picture that the Central Grand Bahama constituency association spokesman painted in The Nassau Guardian is very inaccurate, and it leads me to the conclusion that they are now coming out of the woodworks to smear Lewis because he has left the organisation. Why wasn’t this said before his announcement in the House of Assembly last week? When he was an FNM MP nobody had an issue with his representation. Now all of a sudden, I’m to believe that he was a worthless MP who did diddly squat in his community?

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama April 8, 2025.