THIS past Friday, I attended the funeral service for the late Nigel Anthony Ralph. He was 50. I knew Nigel in various circles but really got to working closely with him in the AFC. He had a creative mind and a most willing spirit.

During political campaigns there couldn’t be a more dedicated soldier than Nigel. During the campaign season he would make the party office his home. He would either sleep at the office or would leave so late and arrive so early the next morning, one would think he slept there.

Nigel enjoyed cooking and demanded that a kitchen be built so that he could lead a team to cook for the daily campaigners. His multitasking abilities were on full display, and I wondered how he was able to prepare three multicourse meals per day yet be involved in the posting of party colours and sundry other forms of critical campaign activities.

To anything AFC, whether in or out of campaign season, Nigel’s commitment was unquestionable. Nigel would aptly fit into the ranks of the working poor and would not be one of the names that would be venerated on social media or in the traditional press, yet his contributions surpassed many of those who have. I wanted to do my part in memorialising Nigel, in the hope that his memory lives on on this page. Simple people like him go unchronicled and unsung, even though their efforts are responsible for adding tremendous value to those who parade as leaders.

Given Nigel’s commitment, I could never understand why the party leadership did not see it as part of their duty to ensure that Nigel and others of his ilk experience economic elevation. From 2015 to 2020 for his economic survival, he held Bar-b-ques and bingos. Nigel could not find stable or secure employment, gain a house lot or business assistance while his government, for whom he laid much on the line to elect to office, roamed the corridors of power.

I wrote extensively in the past of the leaders’ mystifying lack of care for the welfare of their working-class cadre. Nigel was a victim of this tragic leadership disposition that pervades the AFC to this day. While they did not demonstrate any tangible interest in the state of his life, I can bet, in death they ostensibly scraped a small donation for the family. To this day, this character trait in the AFC leadership remains the most haunting and hurtful aspect of the AFC in government. More than any incompetence, corruption, or poor political judgement, this is my greatest reason for not wanting the current crop of AFC leaders to be anywhere near political office again.

Now for the second subject of the caption, the growing desperation of the AFC. During last week, it was revealed that the AFC sought a meeting with Team Mohamed to explore a political alliance. It is my analytic conjecture that the AFC is mortally afraid of facing the electorate alone because it knows there is a very high possibility that the likely poor showing at the ballot box would further erode its plummeting political stock to zero.

The received theory is that the AFC needs to hide behind a partnership to boost its relevance at the ballot box. So, the AFC is helter-skelter seeking salvation with just about anyone; it smacks of desperation.

Given all the facts at play, it is one thing to seek political union with the PNC and other legitimate political parties but entirely another to run after a rag-tag, politically ill-formed “Team” whose greatest political purpose is to sanitise its sullied international image.

No doubt, the AFC will view Team Mohamed as a complementary outfit because they are able to excite poor people with valuable gifts while the AFC knows nothing about looking after the interest of the poor even when they have leverage and power to pull the purse strings of the state. In ordinary mainstream political allurement, Team Mohamed would be politically untouchable and persona non grata for political partnerships, but the AFC is desperate. As the old saying goes, desperate times calls for desperate measures.

There is an aspect of the Team Mohamed + AFC relationship that is worth consideration. If we look at the period of trading for which the US OFAC sanction covers, we will see that the APNU+ AFC coalition firmly held the reigns of power when the traceable sanctioned transactions first took place. At that time AFC held the portfolios for natural resources and public security, under whose purview the Team Mohamed transgressions are alleged to have occurred.

Now under US sanctions, isn’t it ironic that the very people who were in charge of detecting and policing the avenues through which Team Mohamed is alleged to have defrauded the people of Guyana to the tune of billions of dollars, are now heels over head trying to pursue a political alliance. If this isn’t the definition of political desperation, I don’t know what is.

Is there more in the mortar besides the pestle? Is the AFC one of the “other parties” in receipt of huge donations from the Mohameds? Are there answers we should be seeking from AFC that were previously not sought?

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.