Exclusive: The Untold Story about How Dr. Keith Mitchell Became NNP Leader

Dr. Keith Mitchell reveals, for the first time, the painful and challenging journey that led to him becoming the leader of the NNP. A must-watch exclusive!

Subscribe and hit the notification Bell!

so the question of leadership but that was that pushed on me over and over and and people were pressuring over a period of time and I remember very clearly when it was clear that we should the nnp is facing going forward the general election and the Prime Minister then or Blaze was seriously handicapped he he was basically in a wheelchair and it was clearly identified that he was a very sick person and that most likely that he we don’t control life so we don’t know but it’s clear that he was able to function um and otherwise and and that he was deteriorating pressure was applied for the because of my work and the ministry of work I said that that brought a lot me into Limelight there were a lot of pressure from several quarters of the party and um so I remember when I realized the pressure is becoming enous I call a meeting with Ben Jones was Mr Blaze’s Deputy because they went they were together over a period of time and told him that I was getting a lot of pressure from people to to to to um look at possibility lead I’m uncomfortable with it and I wanted to go to hbert blaze and and tell him to appoint Ben Jones and i would support him and he said well you try your luck so I brought I asked Mr Blaze to for the meeting and myself Ben Jones and Harbert Blaze met at his office at the Botanical Gardens and I approached him and I think fortunate for us we had the results of a serious scientific survey because the NDP was now NDC because George bruan left and form his the party and um I remember Mr Blaze was being was being going to be beaten badly in caraku by by by Nicholas braford from the survey and and NDC NDC would not win the election but we were facing a situation where we there might have to be a coalition government without blazes there because he couldn’t win his seat and I remember I approached Mr Blaze and I told him to make Ben Jones a lead and I and the only question he asked me what do I want he asked me what do you want I said well I I’ll just support him and so when I left the office his office um and I engaged went to Ben’s office I say you know this man no he did say at the end I I heard you and I’ll get back to you something like that he didn’t agree with me that Ben Jones should be leader at that time but he didn’t say no he didn’t say yes so I went back to the officer said Ben you know BL better than I do what do you think his answer will be and Ben Jones told me that Blaze ain’t going no way he was very clear he didn’t have any but about it no but so we faced with a de pression start mounting more me and in the final analysis I had to yield because I would have been finished politically right if I had not accepted that’s a hard fact but I knew that would split the party because B when when I did finally agreed to to accept and run against so blaze in the J in the convention was a painful decision people that knew me well they still they said as one of the worst speech that I gave because when you are speaking and and you’re not you are not comfortable you never sound good but people felt that they wanted so I I finally finally I I won the the the leadership and Mr blae subsequently fired me from the cabinet and which is what I expected I did tell him I while I became leader I have no no pretention that I that I technically it would be said that if a party leadership change while the government is in office the the new leader should become the Prime Minister that’s how the this this the system normally works but I had I wanted no no consideration at all I told Mr Blaze that I will continue to support him as prime minister until the general elections but he subsequently was been pushed by a number of people and he fired me from the cabinet at the time and was kind of tough at the time because I’d love the job and the service I was giving to people but I accepted the fact and I never had any pretention of anger against Mr blaz I understand what he was I didn’t like the fact that he formed a new party and kept it so so-called party in government to me when a party wins an election the only time the party should be out of government is when that party is is a new election is called so what Mr Blaze do definitely unconstitutional he’ve contested but he had the support of the opposition bran and NDC what who love the split in the new National Party and they saw me as a challenge really and and therefore we got beaten badly in en elections and we we won only two seats and the tnp Mr blade form got only two seats too and and um Gary got four uh and the NDC got seven subsequently two of Gary persons went over to NDC and Ben Jones went to and NDC went to no one of ND and Ben Jones um Gary went to NDC and Ben Jones and the TMP went with he and Alan Walker that won the seat for tnp went and so NDC had 10 persons in government and we ended up in opposition with two seats um at the time so the history of that period unfortunately it’s not known that there’s a lot of misinformation about that period those who who has a problem with Keith Mel the person would want to twist it for their own but they won’t give it real facts uh I have no reason to twist the facts at all CU you would say in in effect that I’ve been reasonably successful in political Arena there’s no need for me to to try to twist facts about that particular period