You can only have one leader of the country at a time; - says it doesn’t matter what our personal or political ambitions are—Dr Kedrick D. Pickering. Photo: Provided

Honestly Speaking's host, Mr Claude O. Skelton Cline. Photo: VINO/File

According to Dr Pickering, “you can only have one leader of the country at a time, it doesn’t matter what our own personal or political ambitions are.”

Honestly Speaking

Dr Pickering gave his recent and most candid position on the matter, during a guest appearance on radio programme Honestly Speaking on August 28, 2018, and was asked by host, Mr Claude O. Skelton Cline, to respond to the public perception.

The Deputy Premier was adamant, the Virgin Islands (VI) can only have one leader at a time, but the issue is one that he has deliberately opted to not speak publicly on.

Speaking to his personal conviction, Dr Pickering told Honestly Speaking’s Skelton-Cline, “…my role in this country at this point in time is to support the Honourable Premier in his work as leader of this country, to advance this country.”

Loyalty

In a not so subtle swipe at Hon Walwyn and his recent successful challenge for the leadership of the NDP, Dr Pickering told Mr Skelton Cline, “I believe in loyalty, loyalty goes a long way in anything we do.”

According to Dr Pickering, “I’ve been loyal to the Premier in all the years I’ve been with him and I ain’t gon stop being loyal to him despite what the political scene might be.”

Dr Pickering was adamant his loyalty remains with Premier Smith as leader of the VI, “despite what we’re shouting from the mountain top because the country can only have one Premier at a time, and he needs and deserves our support.”

He told Mr Skelton Cline and radio listeners, “If I get to the point where I have political differences with the Leader of the day, if I get to the point where we have philosophical differences, I have a responsibility to myself to be true to myself to say ‘you know sir, I think we work together, I can no longer work with you and move on.”

That time for him, he said, “hasn’t come and I don’t see it on the horizon, so the Premier has my loyalty…I’m not going to go public to try to show up the premier in any way.”

Co-Leader?

According to Dr Pickering, should there be need for him to be critical of Premier Smith, “I would give him my comments privately…If I had to criticise him in-house, I criticise him in-house but when the decisions are made, it is my responsibility as a member of the team to support the decisions going forward.”

Many remain confused as to who is in charge of the government giving rise to the perception, Premier Smith has surrendered his powers to newly elected NDP Chairman, Hon Walwyn—now  referred to as the co-leader of government business.

Hon Walwyn is also accused of speaking out of turn on numerous occasions during his time with the NDP.

He has in fact publicly contradicted statements made by the Premier in addition to public disagreements over a range of issues—his supposed ‘boss.’