“NRP not afraid of ‘vote buying’ – Dr. Daniel Hodge

THE NEVIS REFORMATION PARTY (NRP) LEADER DR JANICE DANIEL-HODGE SAID NEITHER SHE NOR HER PARTY IS TROUBLED by vote buying of their opponent the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM).

“We are not moved by the planes coming in, because we are confident that the people on the ground will make a difference this time,”. Daniel-Hodge told supporters at a campaign rally.

“You are going to come out in your numbers and ensure that Nevis is nice again. You will ensure that you get the representation that you need to move Nevis forward,” she said.

The NRP Leader said that like many other Nevisians she has grown tired and frustrated of the vacuous promises made year after year for a decade by the CCM administration headed by Premier Mark Brantley.

“They keep making empty promises, year after year, its empty promises and we are saying no more, not this time. The promises are not going to work because you had all the opportunities. For nine years we have seen Nevis at a standstill. When we see our single mothers struggling and being disrespected, we said enough of that type of government. We need a government that cares and understands,” Daniel-Hodge emphasised.

She wants CCM’s accountability for some EC$500M given to Nevis by the Federal government between 2017 and 2022. The NRP leader declared that the inept CCM administration continues to abuse and rape the public treasury. With no evidence of how the monies were spent, Daniel-Hodge argues this indicates that something is amiss with the Brantley-led regime.

“When we look at the EC$500M that came at the shore of Nevis, we see that there are no social programmes in place to help our people. We see our single mothers have to go to St Kitts to find work and must leave their children at home; They have to go to St Kitts and put in the same eight hours as their counterparts in Basseterre. At the end of the week their paycheck is less because this government does not care that they must take the extra travel over to St Kitts to get work. So, where are the programmes to help to subsidise these females that are struggling, where are the programmes?” the NRP leader queried.

She accused the CCM administration of lacking in pity or warmth for Nevisians, especially the female population.

“It is so easy for the government to have someone of connection and understand their struggle. When you know the cost of child care – and child care is not subsidised – you wonder why you get up every day and go to work only to end up at the end of the week to turn over the money to a day care provider,” she observed.

“We will put programmes in place to help those that are struggling; those who are vulnerable and we know that after, and during the pandemic, many of our women who worked in the hospitality industry lost their jobs and no one cared that they still had to look after their children.; they still had to pay their utility bills, and in the height of the pandemic, this heartless government continued to put taxes upon taxes and could not care less how people were making it,” Daniel-Hodge said in her biting critique.

On high unemployment pegged at some 35 percent, she has this to say: “Each year we have so many youths coming out of school and where are the programmes and opportunities? When the government does not understand that it is their responsibility to provide job opportunities, then our youths will continue to remain in despair. There are so many youths at home right now doing nothing, but we must provide the opportunities for them to feel hopeful. We must provide an opportunity for them to see a way forward. We cannot sit back and do nothing,” she emphasised.

Daniel-Hodge is seeking to create history by becoming the first female Premier of Nevis. She  is the daughter of the island’s first Premier, Sir Simeon Daniel.

“I am here because I care. When I see the struggles that our people are going through only a heartless person will look the other way, and you have the NRP team that understands what is required,” she noted.

She continued, “To be a politician you must be prepared to serve ethe people. NRP understands that to be in government you are there to help the people; you are not there to help yourself. Over and over again we have seen under the CCM government it is self above country. NRP believes it should be country above self, and our track record will show that.”