Latest update February 5th, 2025 11:03 AM
Nursing school saga…Nigel Hughes hits back at Education Ministry over criticism
Under fire for his representation of controversial nursing school operator Nanda Kissoon, prominent attorney at law
Nigel Hughes
Nigel Hughes has hit back at the Ministry of Education, claiming that “the Constitution still affords and protects the right of every citizen in Guyana to choose counsel of their own choice; however politically affiliated the Government may consider him or her to be.”
Hughes was responding to statements made in a Ministry of Education press release, in which the Ministry distanced itself from Kissoon whose entity, the Guyana Health Care Education Institute, is in the news once again, with students claiming fraud.
The Ministry, which had attracted protest action from the students on Wednesday, sought to highlight that Hughes, who is Chairman of the parliamentary opposition Alliance For Change, was responsible for defending an alleged fraudster, whose institution has not been accredited by the accreditation council.
The Ministry had also stated that it was Hughes, acting in his professional capacity as Counsel to Ms Kissoon, who filed contempt proceedings against the Accreditation Council, threatening to incarcerate them for their refusal to obey an order of the Chief Justice.
The Ministry in its statement urged”…opposition politicians to speak with their fellow opposition politician Nigel Hughes to ensure the students get their money back.”
But according to Hughes, the Ministry of Education in its haste to extricate itself from its involvement in the ongoing saga, overlooked a number of things. One of them is the fact that they not only appeared in the proceedings brought by Ms Kissoon to have the decision not to renew the registration of the school revoked but, they “CONSENTED TO THE GRANT of the Order by the Honourable Chief Justice quashing the decision of the Accreditation Council not to renew the registration and admitting that they acted in error when they refused to renew the registration of the institute.”
Hughes lashed back at the Ministry’s statement by pointing out that in the present case, not only was the Accreditation Council a party but, they were represented by very competent counsel ,who has since been hired by the State to represent the Commissioners in the ongoing Rodney Inquiry.
The attorney said that in their dramatic references to their willingness to defend themselves against threats of incarceration and imprisonment for contempt, the Ministry of Education failed to appreciate that in normal jurisdictions where the rule of law exists and prevails, “if you consent to an order you are obligated to obey it, not refuse to do so when embarrassed.”
“The bit of prose which has withstood the test of time comes from Desiderata. ”Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story,” Hughes wrote.
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