IS INGRAHAM EYEING LEADERSHIP OF THE FNM, AGAIN?

For the past several days, the Free National Movement has found itself running from corner to corner attempting to explain what Hubert Ingraham meant when he told the party that its job was to “find someone who could win.”
But perhaps FNMs should stop trying to interpret Ingraham and start studying him.
They have seen this movie before.
Twenty-one years ago, Tommy Turnquest had every reason to believe Hubert Ingraham was not coming for his job. In September 2005, Turnquest publicly said he had spoken with Ingraham and had been assured the former prime minister had no plans to seek the FNM leadership again.
Then came November.
Ingraham entered the leadership contest and crushed Turnquest, receiving 234 votes to Turnquest’s 99. Afterward, Ingraham acknowledged that he had told Turnquest and Dion Foulkes just days earlier that he would not offer for the leadership, but said relentless appeals from supporters caused him to change his mind.
Call it a change of heart if you wish.
Others may call it a political masterclass in keeping your cards close to your chest.
That history makes Ingraham’s latest intervention impossible to dismiss as merely an elder statesman giving friendly advice.
When a three-time prime minister tells an already wounded opposition party that it needs to “find someone who could win,” every ambitious FNM hears the starting gun. Every dissatisfied delegate starts looking around the room. And every supporter remembers the man who once returned from political retirement and took the party back to government.
That is the real danger for Michael Pintard.
Ingraham does not have to announce that he wants the leadership. He does not even have to say Pintard should resign. All he has to do is create doubt about whether the present leadership can win.
Remarkably, only months ago Ingraham publicly endorsed Pintard to become the next prime minister. Now, following the FNM’s election defeat, he is telling the party to find someone capable of winning.
So what changed?
Perhaps Ingraham genuinely believes the FNM requires new leadership. But Bahamians are entitled to ask another question: is the former prime minister merely diagnosing the FNM’s weakness, or is he helping to deepen it?
The more uncertainty surrounding Pintard, the greater the desperation within the FNM becomes. And desperation has historically created fertile ground for an Ingraham comeback.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Philip Davis and his administration continue setting the national agenda. One can reasonably wonder whether watching Davis occupy the office Ingraham once dominated has rekindled the former prime minister’s political appetite. Jealousy and envy cannot be proven, and should not be asserted as fact. But political ambition rarely disappears simply because a politician announces retirement.
Ingraham knows power. He understands the FNM. Most importantly, he understands how to make FNMs believe they need him.
Tommy Turnquest learned that Ingraham is not to be trusted the hard way.
Michael Pintard would be foolish not to remember it.
The question therefore is no longer simply whether Hubert Ingraham wants to “run things.”
The more intriguing question is whether he is helping create the very crisis that could eventually cause desperate FNMs to beg him to run things again.