Antigua PM hints Africa could wreck Kamina’s bid

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has hinted at a pact between Secretary General Patricia Scotland and some African countries within the Commonwealth that could derail Jamaican Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith’s challenge for the position.

Amid deep canvassing across the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, which has raised several concerns about the cost of Jamaica’s campaign to taxpayers, Johnson Smith fancies her chances of unseating Scotland as high.

A successful bid giving Johnson Smith four years at the helm would have disrupted the rotation order of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s leadership, with Africa originally expected to take over after Scotland’s term.

“Africa and the Commonwealth may coalesce on the completion of Baroness Scotland’s second term by allowing her to complete the remaining 18 months, paving the way for an African rotation immediately thereafter,” Browne told The Gleaner on Wednesday.

His comment follows a Television Jamaica interview in which Johnson Smith said that Browne’s opposition to her candidacy was taken out of context.

The former CARICOM chair had called the Jamaican Government’s decision to field a candidate for the position a “monumental error”.

His comment was the clearest indication yet that there had been a rift within CARICOM on who should be the Caribbean’s candidate, ultimately leading to the consensus that each member state would vote for its candidate of choice at the June 20-25 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.

“I had a conversation with him. We had a great meeting when I was in Guyana for the Agri Investment Forum just a few weeks ago,” Johnson Smith said on the ‘Smile Jamaica’ morning programme.

“I don’t want to share our conversation, but how it has been shared in the media is not exactly how he meant it. He’s actually very complimentary of my capacity and my abilities. I would say that maybe media can ask him for another comment at another time,” she added.

However, when asked by The Gleaner if Antigua’s position had changed or if his comment had been taken out of context, Browne did not respond directly to the minister’s suggestion.

Johnson Smith, who has the backing of several Commonwealth giants, including the United Kingdom and India, would not comment on the campaign of Scotland, insisting that Jamaica decided on its push to replace the incumbent because of several issues plaguing the secretariat.

Echoing Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Johnson Smith said that several countries had called for Jamaica to assume leadership because it was felt that a change was needed.

“We had declined because our view was that hopefully, the issues that brought those queries about would resolve themselves, but they haven’t. I think the fact that three candidates have come forward from different regions clearly sets that out,” she said.

Those issues relate to the suspension of discretionary funding from the British, New Zealand, and Australian governments after it was revealed that Scotland had circumvented the customary competitive tendering requirement by awarding a lucrative consultancy contract to a friend’s company.

It was also revealed that procurement rules had been waived in more than 50 instances by the secretariat over three years.

However, Scotland has maintained that she “acted in accordance with the rules that then applied”.

The other two candidates referenced by Johnson Smith are Kenya’s Monica Juma, who withdrew her candidacy, and Tuvalu’s Sir Iakoba Taeia Italeli.

“We are extremely proud of his campaign because if he wins, he will be the first person from a Pacific Small Island Developing State to hold the position. This is an incredible achievement. Right now, the incumbent, who hails from Dominica, and a candidate from Jamaica are contesting the position with Sir Italeli — who was also formerly our attorney general,” Tuvalu’s Minister for Justice, Communications and Foreign Affairs Simon Kofe told Pacific News Service in April.

Johnson Smith said Juma’s withdrawal intensified calls for Jamaica to field a candidate, which gave rise to several consultations.

“This time we consulted within the region and across the Commonwealth, and the response was so positive that it caused this sort of waterfall ... . We said that we just had to take the decision and go,” she said.

“It wasn’t perfect timing, but they say there’s nobody better than Jamaican women in the sprints,” the minister, who is the leader of government business in the Senate, said.

She said while not taking anything for granted, the response to her candidacy has been unequivocally positive and encouraging.