By Alexis Rodney-A win for attorney Nigel Hughes at the Alliance for Change’s (AFC) National Conference on Saturday, could see the beginning of a conversation within the political party advancing the human, social, and economic development of all Guyanese.
This advancement includes direct cash transfers to citizens, which will see Guyanese directly benefitting from the country’s oil resources.
Hughes is in a two-man race to become the AFC’s next leader, a position he hopes to clip ahead of incumbent General Secretary, Sherod Duncan.
On Thursday, the attorney laid out a few set policies he believes could rescue Guyana from the deadly grip of the PPP Government.
Among those policies is the distribution of cash transfers to Guyana’s most vulnerable groups.
“ I have come around to the view that direct transfers is part of, it’s not a major part of the solution, but we must have direct transfers ,” Hughes said, while a guest on the online programme, Politics 101 with Dr David Hinds, Thursday evening.
The proposal for direct cash transfer was first presented by WPA’s Dr Clive Thomas in 2018, months before first oil. However, the APNU+AFC Government, of which the WPA was part at the time, shrugged at the idea, relating that the wealth would be best served being pumped into programmes such as education and public infrastructure.
The idea had garnered a favorable response from citizens, but was never considered by either of the two major political parties.
However, when the PPP took office in 2020, it immediately commenced a series of “ cash grant” distributions across the country. The first transfer was a $25,000 per family Covid relief distribution in August of that year, then a $19,000 grant for the education sector. More distributions were made for flood relief and later wanton cash handouts to sugar workers at some $250,000, for what the government claimed, was cushioning the impact of the previous administration’s restructuring of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
Hughes said he has seen the abuse and unequal distribution of Guyana’s wealth by the PPP, favoring one set of people who support it and forsaking other groups.
“If you leave the politicians of any class to distribute at will as a discretionary measure , (you) drive through a city and you give people $250,000, you give the sugar workers , and you don’t give the African Guyanese when you got flood relief, your system will be abused by politicians to distribute the nation’s wealth as if it’s their own. We need to enshrine in statutory form, direct transfers to every citizen, ” he told online viewers.
Hughes said he will seek to persuade his party to address the fundamentals of human development, which he said is at the core of Guyana’s future.
While focus must be placed on citizens’ social and economic well being, there must also be fiscal responsibility, the party leader hopeful added.
“So, the principle of human development will be at the core. We have to look at the veri and then we have to fashion policies and train our people so that they get skills that will allow them to survive and at the same time, develop their political consciousness.”
If veri shows that five out of six persons who have licenses to export gold are from one ethnic group, Hughes said a policy must be adopted to rectify that issue.
He reiterated that Guyana is at its most precarious position at this time, even with the available resources and cautioned that if the country does not get things right, it will feel the brutal effects of the misallocation of the bounties the country enjoys.
Citing a recent World Health Organisation’s report showing that some 20 per cent of Guyanese children are living in extreme poverty, Hughes chided the government for attacking the WHO instead of addressing the issue head on. He said the government claimed that the WHO had used the wrong criteria and garnered incorrect veri.
Meanwhile, Hughes said there are serious economic tensions in the country, particularly in African Guyanese community.
Poverty is also rampant in many East Indian communities, but is largely hidden because the PPP has been able to convince the people that it is the better choice than another government.
Hughes, who left the AFC in 2016, returned to the political scene last week when he announced he was vying for the leadership of the party.
Campaigning on a slogan he adopted “better must come,” Hughes admits he has much to offer Guyana. He said the country needs a break and is willing to pool his ideas with others to fashion a new and çağdaş Guyana.