Granger may be old but he is not cold!

Jul 10, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The reasons why many persons are leaving the PNC/R have nothing to do with the party’s leadership. Those who are leaving, however, may genuinely believe that one of the reasons, which pushed them to resign or not to renew their membership, is linked to the leadership of the party.
However, there is no leadership crisis within the PNC/R. David Granger is the leader of the party. He led the party to what many of those who are leaving believe was an electoral victory in 2020. After all, none of them has ever come out and said that the party did not win the elections.
Nor did any of them admit otherwise and expressed displeasures with the post-elections actions of the party. No one said anything publicly.
As such, how does one conclude that there is a problem with the party’s leadership? In the eyes of many, David Granger did not lose the elections. So if he successfully piloted the party to an electoral victory, which was stolen by the United States, and other western powers and handed to the PPP/C, why then would his leadership be questioned? Did he not in the opinion of so many of his party’s members lead it into victory?
Any problems with the leadership of the PNC/R therefore cannot be linked to the elections, unless those who are opposed to David Granger would have liked to have seen him remain in office despite the GECOM declaration of the results.
In a recent interview, Granger has made it clear that he had no choice but to comply with the constitutional position regarding the elections. He has said that so long as GECOM made a declaration he was obligated to respect that declaration.
This did not preclude him from challenging the results. His party has unsuccessfully done this through its elections petition. Interestingly, one of the petitions, which was supposed to have proven a series of irregularities, was defective in terms of the timeliness on its service on Granger. However, there was a second petition, which amounted to a constitutional challenge to the Recount, the very Recount that Granger had agreed to.
So why this present issue now with Granger’s leadership? What are his failings? Has he failed?
If the position is that the statements of polls in the hands of the APNU+AFC showed that the Coalition won the elections, then David Granger delivered victory. So there should not be any fallout from the elections.
On the other hand, if David Granger is being blamed for the loss of the elections, then those who are critical of his leadership need to explain why they never conceded that the PPP/C won the elections. Surely, they must explain this contradiction.
David Granger did not fail. It was the AFC, which faltered. An examination of the results of the elections showed that the PNC/R held its base. But it was the AFC, which failed to deliver sufficient votes to enable the Coalition to surpass the PPP/C.
This so-called leadership crisis in the PNC/R is therefore all contrived. A case has not been made out for any failing of David Granger in relation to the elections.
But people have a right to decide that the party must look towards the future and to have a succession policy. David Granger is soon going to be 76 years old.
This is not old by political standards. There are world leaders who have been older than Granger. The President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, is 88 years old. Mahmoud Abbas is 85 years old, as is the King of Saudia Arabia. Moreover, the head of the smallest State in the world, the Vatican City, is 84 years old and just underwent intestinal surgery. The late President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, was deposed as President when he was 93 years old.
So what are the criticisms of Granger? Is he stifling young people from progressing in the party? If this is the view, then why are persons over the age of the 60 contesting for leadership?
If the lack of opportunities for young persons are the reasons for questioning Granger’s leadership, then why has no one 40 years or younger thrown his or her hat into the ring for leadership? The PPP/C selected a 40-year-old to be its Presidential candidate. What happen to the PNC/R?
(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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