When this Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration pledges the date for something to happen, one thing you know for sure is it won't happen on that day.
Chairman of the Constitutional Commission Sean McWeeney said on Tuesday the government might have to delay the planned constitutional referendum for the third time.
Last October, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that the referendum would take place before the end of June 2014 after a public education campaign. Christie also said constitutional bills would be brought to Parliament before the end of 2013 and passed by February 2014.
The bills have not yet been introduced in Parliament and the public education campaign has not started.
When asked if the June date was still feasible, McWeeney said, "That probably is unlikely.
"At this point in time there are other more pressing bills, like the upcoming budget debate. And the budget debate has historically been a lengthy one. "So there may be a change in time.
But we are confident that we will present the bill in its final form in a matter of weeks. "It will then be up to the government in how they queue it up."
McWeeney said commission members met with Cabinet last week to discuss the draft bills.
Christie previously said the government hopes to amend the citizenship provisions of the constitution to achieve full equality between men and women with respect to the acquisition and transmission of Bahamian nationality.
He also said the government also proposes to expand the definition of discrimination in the constitution to include discrimination based on sex as a prohibited ground, so that women would be able to enjoy the same level of protection from discrimination that men already enjoy.
These are important issues and there is finally consensus between the parties. In the run-up to the February 2002 referendum, Christie and his PLP were for removing gender discrimination in Parliament and then against it on the campaign trail.
To defeat the FNM and to force the momentum against the then governing party months before the general election, the PLP abandoned Bahamian women. Conviction was thrust aside for power. Now, Christie keeps making dates as to when this referendum will come after it never came at all from 2002 to 2007, the PLP's last term in office.
For women who are not able to pass on their citizenship to their children as men can in The Bahamas, this is an important issue. We wonder, though, if it is a serious one for the prime minister. If it isn't, he should just say so and we would learn not to pay attention to his words and pledges.
2014, we as a people should be embarrassed that we have enshrined in our supreme law gender-based discrimination. We must move away from the misogyny of the past. Our women should have the same rights as our men. There is no logical argument on this point that could defend the status quo
. If only our prime minister was as passionate about this issue as he seems to be about meeting foreign investors.
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