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Figueira kicked out of Norton’s shadow cabinet
– in major reshuffle ahead of budget debates
Kaieteur News – Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, has removed Region 10 Member of Parliament, Jermaine Figueira from his shadow cabinet and also stripped him of the Sports, Youth and Culture portfolio in a major reshuffle of his shadow cabinet ahead of the budget debates.
Figueira has been replaced by Nima-Flue Bess, several MPs told Kaieteur News on Wednesday. Kaieteur News understands that Figueira was stunned by the decision of Norton who made the announcement at a meeting with his MPs on Tuesday. “It’s a tendency of some when holding Opposition Leader Norton accountable to see those who do so as anti-Norton not holding ourselves to a standard that demonstrates to the world, we are better than and is the only alternative to the PPP. Mr. Norton has unilaterally removed MP Jermaine Figueira from the portfolio of Youth, Sports and Culture. Jermaine is the person who recently distributed over 5000 toys to children, football gear to many organisations, bicycles to the needy and so on which made the Opposition looked good,” one of the sources commented.
According to the source, what is more striking about the situation is that Norton did not follow custom and practice where the Opposition Leader would engage MPs before removing/reshuffling them, thereby catching many by surprise. “Can we afford disgruntled MPs who would rightly be concerned about being treated with disdain or as though they are children- a behaviour considered unacceptable in the 21st century?” the source asked rhetorically. “How long more must we, the people, ignore these unilateral and autocratic behaviours and disregard for customs and practice that are holding back the Opposition and making us similar or a worse alternative to the PPP? To those who thrive on enabling Mr. Norton, stop and think what you’re enabling and the consequences to us all.”
The source said Norton’s venom and victimization towards Figueira –an outspoken central executive member and chairman of Region Ten, the PNCR‘s strongest constituency, know no bound. Figueira who is the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of National Assembly and the leader have had heated exchanges in the past after the former was strongly in opposition to Norton’s no-hand shaking policy and publicly defied the party leader’s position by shaking the hand of President Irfaan Ali on several occasions. “Since then Norton has been making moves to oust Figueira, firstly by making the regional Chairman, Deron Adams, the campaign manager over Figueira and now this move several days before the country’s largest budget. It is important to note, that Figueira was the most prominent MP who endorsed and campaigned for Norton to be the Leader of the PNCR,” the source added.
Other changes
Meanwhile, according to the source, Norton also made other changes to his shadow cabinet moving Coretta McDonald from the labour to education sector. David Patterson was also moved from oil and gas and shifted to public infrastructure while Shurwayne Holder takes over the natural resources shadow portfolio. Geeta Chandan-Edmond was also moved from Home Affairs to governance, while former Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan takes on the home affairs shadow portfolio.
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