Former United National Congress (UNC) chairman Jack Warner has vowed to put his all into helping Kamla Persad-Bissessar and his former party fight against the People’s National Movement (PNM).
The 80-year-old, who returned on a UNC platform on Monday night at the Centre of Excellence, said he intends to dismantle his political party, the Independent Liberal Party (ILP), to bring supporters back to the UNC.
“Tonight, I am here by choice. We come together to fight the common enemy. Nothing is gained by division. This country is heading down into an abyss quickly, and our collective efforts must be brought together to save this country,” Warner said.
Warner labelled Persad-Bissessar the “Nelson Mandela of local politics” for what he saw as her vision for unity and then told supporters that, given the reception he received there, he was wondering why he wasn’t back with them long before.
He told the crowd: “Many persons have asked me why I’m coming to this meeting (saying), ‘But Jack Warner, you mad, you and Kamla again, and a whole amount of garbage. But those are the very same people who would spend day and night criticising (Prime Minister Dr Keith) Rowley and the PNM but would stay on the fence and do nothing about it. I am here to do something about it.”
He added, “When I earn my dues, I will convene a meeting with the ILP and disband it. The ILP has to be formally reintegrated with the UNC. We are one family, one family, one family.”
Warner said that the youngest and brightest “are leaving the country, unemployment is high and crime is a runaway”. “And I ask myself, what can we do to solve it?”
He told supporters that they have among them the best commissioner of police this country has ever seen, in NTA political leader Gary Griffith.
“We have among us the best minister of works and transport this country has ever seen,” as he pointed to himself.
He also pointed to himself as he told supporters that they also had among them the best national security minister this country has ever seen.
“And with Gary and myself and the best prime minister this country has ever seen, you have no cause for fear, and that is why on August the 14th, I’m asking you to come out in your numbers. Don’t tote, vote!”
Warner is currently battling extradition proceedings in court as he’s facing prosecution in the United States on money laundering and wire-transfer charges linked to his tenure as vice-president of the world governing football body, FIFA.