Dear Editor
WITH the councillors of the City of Georgetown soon to choose a mayor to lead them for a second year, and I use the word choose deliberately as there is no direct election of the mayor by the citizens of our capital, it is important that they carefully choose someone who is smart, energetic, visionary, honest and most importantly, someone who is young. Guyana is at a critical point in its history and it is therefore important that the capital city has the right leadership. Our city faces a moral crisis. At City Hall there is a war against principles of decency, honesty and ethics, leaving many citizens with no moral compass to evaluate their direction. With nepotism and cronyism so rampant at City Hall along with alleged bribery, corruption and graft so prevalent. With mismanagement ineptitude and negligence so widespread, morals and values are missing.
It is therefore simply not good enough to continue to have clueless persons at the helm; rather, we need young bright leaders such as Sherod Duncan.
Today, the majority of Guyana’s population is 21 years old or younger. These young people want to contribute meaningfully to their country’s development, they want to see their leaders being confident, social, and savvy with technology. It is time for the older generation represented by the current mayor, who has been in the current Council for more than 22 long years to give way and invest in younger ones such as her deputy.
City Hall has a leadership vacuum . . . Leaders provide solutions. That’s what our cities and towns need most—a new batch of problem-solving leaders. The current leaders instead provide more problems than solutions, examples which can be found in the handling of our vendors, the parking meter fiasco, the late payment of salaries to workers and so much more.
Quite frankly, with the many failures at City Hall, we are quite lucky that the only crisis to hit our capital so far is a financial one, but as they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure . . . Can we afford to wait for a crisis? No we can’t. We need new leadership at City Hall now!
We must focus on the future. If we can equip young people with new habits and attitudes, we will prevent problems for years to come. It is better to build a fence at the top of the cliff than a hospital at the bottom. We want to address other potential crises before they begin, by preparing young people to be leaders in the city.
Georgetown needs movement. A cursory study of history of the world reveals that many of the movements that changed the world began with young people. From Jesus and His disciples, to Joan of Arc, to William Wilberforce, to John Wesley, to Martin Luther King, Jr.—nations have been impacted by young adults. We believe it is time for another movement that will transform our society. We also believe that if we have any chance of seeing it happen today, we must reach out and elect Sherod Duncan who represents the next generation.
Regards
Sincerely yours,
Nadine Jerrick