THE resignation as leader handed to the AFC by Nigel Hughes with immediate effect is certainly insulting to the leadership of the AFC. Normally, the moral convention all over the world is that the resignation takes effect when the new leader is either elected or appointed or an interim person is selected.

It is a comical situation that Nigel broke tradition, and the AFC big wigs are scrambling like mad to ask him not to leave right away. The sudden imposition by Nigel on the AFC hierarchy is another manifestation that Hughes was never suited for politics.

If you examine his political history, it has been one failure after another. I campaigned for the AFC in 2015, and his low-key presence was pronounced. He didn’t campaign in the 2020 elections. He resigned from the chairmanship and executive committee of the AFC in 2017. That resignation was followed by his third exclamation that he was finished with politics. We now have the fourth exclamation and this time I think Nigel is gone forever from politics.

With Irfaan Ali as president and oil money pouring into Guyana in large numbers after 2027, there will be no space for the AFC in the future. The AFC died long before 2025 and a remnant of it could have kept it alive if the AFC had coalesced with APNU for the 2025 polls.

The journey of Nigel Hughes has been a self-destructive one, politically speaking. He had a charisma and a multi-racial following at the time of the birth of the AFC in 2005. The self-destructive journey began in November 2018. He generated dislike for himself all over the world when he advised the APNU+AFC leadership that 34 and not 33 was a parliamentary majority of 65. From there on, political society and academics made fun of him.

The world was surprised when it was Dominic Gaskin and not Nigel Hughes that came out against the attempted rigging of the 2020 General and Regional Elections. It was his attitude to that event that caused me to distance myself from him. I never saw him with the same eyes anymore. I expected someone with the political pedigree of Nigel to come out and denounce the most profane and degenerate attempt by an incumbent to rig a general election anytime in the past, anywhere in the world.

After 2020, he reiterated his exit from politics, but it was a contorted exit. He was now found in the company of David Hinds and Rickford Burke, and he seemed happy immersing himself in that racially charged ambience. Each time I saw him on a podcast with Hinds and Burke, I saw the self-destructive instinct at play.

To the surprise of every Guyanese, Nigel Hughes announced his bid for the leader position of the AFC, an organisation that since 2020 he hardly interfaced with and whose head office he seldom visited since 2020. Nigel competed for the leader position of the AFC because he knew that there was a moment he could seize given the absolute diminution of both the fortune and credibility of the PNCR with elections just around the corner.
Nigel sincerely believed at the time that a PNCR+AFC coalition will have him as the consensus candidate. He believed as the consensus candidate he would either be the kingmaker as the opposition leader in a minority government or the PNCR+AFC coalition could win giving him the presidency.

For the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC) that pushed Nigel into politics once more, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be the consensus candidate. The AFC believed it and large swaths of the anti-government world in Guyana believed he would have been given the slot by the PNCR.
Nigel’s political world began to fall apart when Norton became ragingly inflexible on him, Norton being the consensus candidate. He may not be a brilliant political thinker, but Nigel knew without the coalition as an election ticket, the AFC would not survive on its own. It happened on September 1. His raison d’être for staying in politics was now gone thus his immediate resignation.

It is naïve for anyone to think the resignation comes as part of global tradition of leader giving way when he/she loses a national election. The urgency with which the resignation was trusted upon the AFC indicated that he wanted to get out of politics as quickly as possible.

One thing is sure; he will not explain his sudden departure to the press. Up to this day, he has said not one word to the Guyanese people why he resigned in 2017 after a fiery retreat of the AFC at the Conference Centre. Hughes has left Guyanese politics, but he has left behind an ocean of controversies.

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.