Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis does not have a good record of winning favor when he speaks.
It seems the DPM is stumbling from one verbal blunder to the next.
This is important to watch, as it is no secret that Davis wants to be prime minister.
A national leader ought to speak in a considered and effective way.
In the case of Davis, there have been far too many instances that have left us holding or shaking our heads.
For instance, the deputy prime minister seemed recently to have done a 360 on the matter involving Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Works Renward Wells, over Wells' controversial signing of a letter of intent with a company that wants to develop a $600 million-plus waste-to-energy plant at the New Providence landfill.
In so doing, Davis also seemed to be questioning the authority of Prime Minister Perry Christie, who already asked Wells to resign for allegedly exceeding his authority in signing that document with Stellar Waste to Energy (Bahamas) Ltd.
As the minister responsible for the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, Davis was contacted by The Nassau Guardian on this matter two weeks ago.
Davis previously said Wells had no authority to sign the document.
Following that initial statement, we confirmed that Christie asked for Wells' resignation.
But Davis said he needed an explanation from Wells and he needed to "test" this explanation before determining whether Wells had done anything wrong.
This confused that issue further. It left many people wondering who really is in charge of the government.
JOBS
The one statement that continues to haunt Davis in this term is a declaration he made on the 2012 campaign trail about jobs.
At a rally in Hatchet Bay, North Eleuthera, on April 19, 2012, Davis said, "Vote for a PLP government that is ready to create 10,000 immediate new jobs for young Bahamians."
Since coming to office, Davis has been continually criticized by the Free National Movement (FNM) for his pledge.
Last October, Davis told The Guardian that he doesn't regret the promise.
"It's been taken out of context," he said.
"I don't want to trample over it, because instead of criticizing me on the promise to create 10,000 jobs, look at what we did.
"Criticize me on what is happening. We are creating jobs, and at the end of the day, at the end of this term we would have created more than 10,000 jobs."
Two weeks ago, he declared that his ministry alone has already created more than 10,000 jobs.
"I have created more than 10,000 jobs, just in the contracts and works I've given out from my ministry," said Davis, who is minister of works and urban development.
But there has been no empirical evidence of this.
Just over a week ago, the Department of Statistics released the results of its Labour Force Survey.
According to the latest survey, 8,390 net jobs have been added to the economy since May 2012.
This was positive news for the Christie administration, but it did not square with Davis' claim.
The growth of the labor force also means that while more than 8,000 jobs were created, more people were unemployed in May 2014 than in May 2012, when the Christie administration took office.
Instead of accepting the results of the survey, the deputy prime minister threw the integrity of the hard working professionals at the Department of Statistics into question.
This is not good for a possible future prime minister to do.
Davis suggested that the recent figures do not accurately reflect the number of jobs created by the Christie administration.
"It was pointed out by Minister of National Insurance [Shane Gibson] that the huge number of people who were registered as workers, for which employers were paying their contributions," Davis said.
"That's what I based my numbers on.
"There is obviously a need to synchronize the work of the Department of Statistics with what is revealed by the National Insurance numbers. Somehow they have to be synchronized."
Director of Statistics Kelsie Dorsett said previously that both the PLP and the FNM too often use the statistics to gain political points.
"Both the Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party have short-term memories when it comes to how the process works," Dorsett said.
This is most unfortunate.
MPs' salaries
Several months ago, Davis put his foot in his mouth on the matter of salary increases for members of Parliament.
It was bad enough that a select committee of Parliament looking into such matters was insensitive enough to recommend the review at this time.
What Davis said following that was another head-shaking moment that put another strike against him.
Davis said MPs should receive an increase to discourage them from wrongdoing.
"[It would] remove the temptation for politicians to do things that are not right, because if they (MPs) are earning a living by doing this, then there would be no need for them to do anything else. I think that's what the Bahamian public has to understand.
"The feelings of our public is probably more rooted in their scepticism about us as politicians and their mistrust of all of us as politicians. But hopefully the time has come for us to win back the trust of the people. When I say win back the trust of the people, I mean politicians on all sides of the spectrum."
There has been no salary increase for MPs since that report was released.
Given the DPM's statement, we are extremely worried that some MPs are unable to resist the temptation to do wrong.
Crime
The DPM's verbal blunders are numerous. We recall the declarations he has made as they relate to crime.
One month after he was robbed at gunpoint in his home in December, Davis said The Bahamas is not "as dangerous as it is made out to be".
"I feel safe," he said. "I think The Bahamas is not as dangerous as it is made out to be.
"We do have pockets of young men who have lost their way and are wreaking havoc, but I think it is all confined within what I call groupings."
His claim that The Bahamas is not as dangerous as it is made out to be came months after he declared that "no one is safe from crime" in The Bahamas.
Davis made that statement after one of his police aides was shot in eastern New Providence.
Back on the topic of crime, Davis said in May 2014 that crime has the country "under siege".
However, he lashed out at the media for "flaming this fire of discontent".
While in opposition, he was adamant that reports about high levels of crime should not be silenced.
We were not sure what his true feelings were on crime after these contradictory statements.
Promises
Apart from his 10,000 jobs pledge, Davis made other pronouncements on the campaign trail that were dead on arrival with the election of the Progressive Liberal Party on May 7, 2012.
He promised to move for a commission of inquiry within the first 100 days to investigate the road work project, BTC sale, Arawak Cay port deal, et cetera.
This was indeed a noteworthy declaration from Davis at a PLP mass rally at Clifford Park in April. So much so that it grabbed headlines and made our front page.
"I shall agitate for the commission to be appointed so it can call for people and papers to examine and explore the facts surrounding specific matters of great national importance," Davis said.
"With this fact-finding body, we shall seek to examine and reveal the role of special interests involved in the grant of a 40-year monopoly at the Arawak Cay Port."
Davis said at the time that Bahamians still don't know the names of the people "hiding behind the corporate veils".
He questioned where the "people's money" went. "Inquiring minds want to know," Davis said. "Let the chips fall where they may."
The PLP deputy said the commission would also be mandated to examine matters pertaining to the sale of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company.
The government sold 51 percent of the shares in BTC to Cable and Wireless Communications last year.
Davis has long abandoned his pledge to call for this inquiry.
It sounded good on the campaign trail. Whether he was serious at the time he said it is anyone's guess.
It is likely that Davis' comments will continue to be followed closely.
He is grooming himself to be prime minister.
Along with this should come consistency and well-reasoned statements.
On that score, Davis has been lacking.

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