HERE are the words of Raphael Trotman in an exclamation he made at a local government election campaign meeting one evening at Bartica in 2018. He said when the results of the national elections in 2015 were announced, David Granger called him on the phone and said, “Raphael, this is Nassau.”
Up to this day, Trotman refuses to tell the nation what that utterance meant. What did he and Granger discuss at the airport in Nassau, Bahamas, for Granger to make that exclamation? It had to do with some form of strategising when the two were discussing politics in Guyana.

Trotman has taken the infantile way out of evading his obligation to voters by explaining what was meant by, “Raphael, this is Nassau.” Here is Trotman’s reason for not wanting to disclose the meaning behind the utterance. I quote Trotman: “Unless and until the day, he [Granger] speaks about it, I wouldn’t.”

Only one word comes to mind to describe such an attitude, silly. Two reasons explain this foolishness of Trotman: first, it was Trotman who publicly revealed it. Secondly, it is not by a second-hand source that Trotman found out what Granger expressed; Granger’s zealousness was communicated directly to Trotman. For these two reasons, Trotman is under the obligation to explain what Granger meant because what Granger meant was told to him and he broadcast it publicly.

This is the type of opposition politicians we have in Guyana, and they are so arrogant to believe that voters are stupid enough to vote for them. Trotman, we thought, had finished with politics after Ramjattan’s prediction came true – if AFC teams up with the PNC, it will become dead meat. But Trotman is back in business. He was made General-Secretary of the AFC at the party’s last congress in June this year.

Trotman has lost sight of one of the cardinal rules in politics – don’t ever forget the things you say publicly. It was at the local government campaign in Bartica he told the crowd that Granger called him. Yet on page four of the preface of his book, “From Destiny to Prosperity,” he wrote that after the APNU+AFC victory in May, 2015, Granger held his hand and said, “Raphael, this is Nassau.” I repeat – Trotman said those words at Bartica in 2018.

I did a column on the Bartica meeting which ruffled Trotman and he contacted Kaieteur News about the contents of that column, even though I had the tape of the meeting (which I think I still do).
So Trotman is back in the saddle. But will he explain what Granger meant in that telephone call? Will Raphael Trotman, the General Secretary of the AFC, explain to voters why he was as big as any personality in the AFC, as powerful as any personality but was not chosen for a ministerial post which he described in his book?

These are things journalists should ask Trotman as we enter the phase of election fever beginning next year. Surely, Trotman cannot hope to get people’s votes if he is so pompous and arrogant to refuse to explain why the AFC overlooked him.
In 2015, if you ask any Guyanese who the leader of the AFC was, they would have said either Trotman or Ramjattan. So who decided to deny Trotman a ministerial seat? Was it one powerful person or was it a cabal? It could not have been Dominic Gaskin because on the Freddie Kissoon Show, he said he was not aware that Trotman was overlooked in the selection for ministerial posts. It couldn’t have been David Patterson. He also said on the Freddie Kissoon Show that he was not aware of any decision not to assign a ministerial post to Trotman.

Does Trotman understand his obligation to voters? He is the General-Secretary of his party with the same personalities around him that were there in 2015 when he was sidelined. Can voters trust the AFC if they don’t know which leader has what authority and which leader is not liked or trusted?
Let’s look at it this way, for argument sake, if the AFC were to win the 2025 election, will there be a repeat of 2015, when the top leaders are not guaranteed ministerial positions?

Surely, the AFC cannot go into an election without levelling with voters as to what Trotman disclosed in his book. Is Trotman telling the truth? And if he is, can he tell us what the compelling reasons were why he was not considered ministerial material in 2015? And how was the decision made? Over to you, Raphael!

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.