Granger – is Jagdeo so desperate, so far gone?

Jun 29, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths column…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – Former President David Granger did the wrong thing.  So said former president Bharrat Jagdeo.  Instead of backing the PNC, he should be backing the PPP.  It was Jagdeo again.  Now, I am convinced that Jagdeo has gone off the deep end.  When Mr. Jagdeo could so crave the endorsement of Mr. Granger, then it is clear he is in a bad way.  A desperate man will clutch at a fantasy.  Why even go there, Dr. J?  Kerosene and mercury don’t mix, nor darkness recommended to brighten up deeper darkness.

PPP strongman and showman, Bharrat Jagdeo, said earlier that he is the September 1 winner by a landslide.  What happened since then, has he slid under the pile of rubble that the landslide delivered?  If I am genuinely assured about a landslide, there is no need for David Granger.  Nor Bond, James Bond, now part of the PPP’s majestic secret service.  A landslide means every other competitor, individually or collectively, got blown away.  From today forward.  So, of what utility is David Arthur Granger, former head-of-state, and former head rigger of elections, as alleged, by the Bharrat Jagdeo crowd?

Just recently, I had reminded Guyanese, right in this space, how Jagdeo the forgiver and redeemer is kind to his enemies.  Forget about political enemies; a character like Big Kahuna Jagdeo doesn’t make that distinction.  Once against him, that’s it: an enemy for life.  Forget about elephantine memory, the man is like a crocodile and a kicked dog at the same time.  The Jamaicans had it right: ‘sorree fuh maagah dawg, maagah dawg tun roun bite yuh.’  Yeah, now Dr. Jagdeo is all Mr. Forgiveness.  Granger should support the PPP.  I have heard some comical things in my life, but Bhai Bharrat is now the chief gaffer and leg puller.  A real funny guy, he is.  I wonder what the object of his affections, Mr. Granger himself, thinks of this courtship.

In 2020, and not a day since then, David Granger was hung in effigy, made into a caricature (recall “sanctimonious gangster?” from another Jamaican), as the uber rigger, but here Guyanese are in 2025, and Jagdeo is desperate for his endorsement.  After all the big talk and bad talk about winning big in September, the PPP headman can’t be in such a lousy, shaky, tricky state that he could degrade himself by seeking Mr. Granger’s hand in marriage.  Then again, Jagdeo has his own ideas of what marriage means.  It is his version of making a deal with the devil.

Excellency Granger said that he is all for the PNC.  What else could he have said, that he endorsed the PPP?  I have heard that Guyana is a de facto one-party State.  Should Mr. Granger cross the floor, that would remove the pretense, and make it official.  All the farces that Guyanese have to deal with from the PNC and AFC that they are assured of victory would be removed from the media soundbites.  On each occasion that I think this country is a tragedy living a comedy and heading for a catastrophe, it takes a lovely chap like Jagdeo to remind me how right I have things.

On the subject of money, I am going public.  Since it is the season of wheeling and dealing, I have a deal to offer dealmaker Jagdeo.  Get rid of the huffer, bluffer, stuffer, and puffer in the Office of the President, and my endorsement is in the mail.  No duty-free vehicle, no contract, no job, no handshake (the thought makes me cringe), just change the ticket.  I can make leeway for an alleged rigger of elections, like Dr. Jagdeo, fixer of wounds, soother of passions.  But, I cannot and will not make allowance for a rigger of awards, a rigger of narratives, and a rigger of what is due to the Guyanese people.  No PR man or old-time propagandizer or agitator could cleanup that record.  But back to David Granger and Bharrat Jagdeo.

I must say he is a world-class traveler, and at hypersonic speeds.  David Granger, that is.  In 2020, he was Public Enemy Number One.  Five tortured years later, he is the only one to emerge a winner – Public PPP Endorser Number One, as avidly sought after by BJ.  He really thinks he is BJ Thomas (“I can’t stop this feeling, deep inside of me…”).  He is that ‘hooked on a feeling.’  Now, it is time to go, and so I can’t help but leave this one with my fellow Guyanese (and Yankees, too).

If Jagdeo is so bent on chasing Granger, then the unthinkable could become the doable: Maduro for Jagdeo.  Nicky for Barry and the PPP.  Of course, that endorsement from Caracas is not going to come free of charge.  Half of Essequibo sounds free and fair.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Bharrat Jagdeo, David Granger, GHK Lall, Guyana Elections 2025, PNC

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