When a politician has outlived his usefulness, is often used to describe the point in a political career when someone is no longer considered valuable to their party, constituents, or political allies.
History is replete with political leaders who have seemingly squandered the last coppers of political currency while in office. Either through personality, private antics or unpopular policies, there is an expanding list of people who have outlived their apparent usefulness to their political party.
Severing these apparently non-viable veins to election success is always public and never pretty.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden was a recent and particularly notable example of a politician outliving his usefulness to his Democratic Party. He was rather publicly asked to step aside in favour of Vice President Kamala Harris in the run up to the 2024 presidential elections.
Liz Truss, who became UK Prime Minister in September 2022, but pressured to resign just 49 days later after her economic policies caused market chaos and her Conservative Party turned against her.
And who could forget former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s trajectory which provides a textbook example of a politician who outlived his usefulness to his party and allies. Johnson rose to power as a uniquely charismatic figure but his usefulness rapidly diminished in post Covid debacles.
So surely, by history’s standards, former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis stands in good company, after a blistering headline announcement on Monday 7th April 2025, that Minnis would not be offered, the olive branch of a FNM party nomination.
On a positive note, like him or loathe him, in the realm of politics, he has managed to breathe that rarified air as a national leader. Many have perished in the fires of public opinion in their attempt at same.
Born on 16th April 1954, at 70 years of age, Dr. Minnis still sits in that prime political age range. He was the first non-attorney to be elected prime minister. Coincidentally, as a physician, his leadership tenure would coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic, the most significant global health challenge since the polio epidemic.
If, by some extraordinary occurrence, a new political future is yet to manifest for Dr. Minnis, what may work in his favour is that he is no longer inexperienced enough to be foolish. He is seasoned enough to anticipate the bitter consequences of misfortune, and old enough to recognise the folly of such actions. And after a significant amount of blistering criticism, he remains a skilled debater and challenger to the governing PLP’s policy positions. Minnis’s contributions in the House of Assembly continue to offer cogent points needed in opposition politics.
As is the grace and mercy afforded to countless previous leaders of nations, Dr. Hubert Minnis in many ways, remains a valuable asset to the cause of nation-building in The Bahamas.
Outliving one’s usefulness to Party
One may outlive one’s perceived usefulness to the electorate—be voted out—and still later on, comeback to achieve election victory. This happens all the time in politics. But, outliving one’s perceived usefulness to one’s political Party, is quite another thing.
Arguably, Minnis definitely still sees himself as an electable politician; he just isn’t one to the FNM Party.
Where the political divide exists with Dr. Minnis and his Party is overwhelmingly an internal personality and political aims clash with current leader of the Opposition Micheal Pintard.
Two personalities, with the same leadership ambition, occupying the same space, is simply one too many. Pintard was overshadowed by the mere presence of Minnis in the House of Assembly and in internal Party affairs. A failed leadership by Dr. Minnis to unseat Michael Pintard bitterly divided party members and did little to improve relations between the two men.
Soon, Dr. Minnis would be banned from speaking on behalf of the FNM Party or on Party matters.
A Fast Free Fall From Grace
If high praise can be given, indeed must be given to Dr. Minnis, was in his extraordinary promise, in the run up to the 2017 general elections, to make University of Bahamas tuition free.
Not only was UB made tuition free in August 2019, also Bahamas Technical and Vocation Institute was made tuition free, and in 2020 BAMSI was made tuition free. Thousands of tertiary educated Bahamians will owe their tuition free education to his tenure as Prime Minister.
Nevertheless, the fall of Dr. Hubert Minnis represents a dramatic example of how quickly political fortunes can change when a leader’s usefulness has ended.
Bad luck would befall Dr. Minnis and his FNM administration when on 1st September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck leaving $3.4 billion in damages and lost revenues in Abaco and Grand Bahama. Covid-19 followed soon after in early 2020.
Double disasters revealed a woefully inexperienced cadres of Ministers and politicians who further undermined Dr. Minnis’s position. They would all come to be regarded as a ‘government only able to deal with good times, not hard times.’
Dr. Minnis led the Free National Movement (FNM) to a landslide victory in 2017, winning 35 of 39 seats in Parliament. Just four years later, his political career effectively collapsed through a series of events:
1. Pandemic management backlash – While initially praised for early COVID-19 response, his administration’s handling of subsequent waves generated significant criticism. The strict lockdowns and curfews became increasingly unpopular as economic hardship mounted.
2. Hurricane Dorian aftermath – The government’s recovery efforts following the devastating 2019 hurricane were widely perceived as inadequate, with many affected communities still struggling during election time.
3. Economic deterioration – The Bahamas experienced severe economic contraction during his tenure, exacerbated by but not limited to the pandemic.
4. Perceived authoritarianism – His use of emergency powers as the Competent Authority during the pandemic alienated many Bahamians who felt the restrictions were excessive or inconsistently applied.
5. Countless missteps by Cabinet Ministers – Significant loss of public confidence in FNM ministers following notable government missteps such as the tendered resignation of Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands, over a breach in COVID pandemic protocol, were attributed to Minnis as leader.
6. Electoral decimation – The September 2021 election resulted in a crushing defeat, with the FNM reduced from 35 seats to just 7, one of the most dramatic reversals in Bahamian political history.
7. Party abandonment – Following the defeat, former cabinet colleagues quickly distanced themselves, criticism from within the party mounted, and Minnis was replaced as party leader within months.
What makes Minnis’s case particularly notable was how completely the narrative around him changed. The physician-turned-politician who had been hailed as a transformative leader in 2017 was, by late 2021, largely rejected by both the electorate and his own party, left with few defenders and a legacy primarily defined by crisis mismanagement.
FUTURES
Only Dr. Minnis, the voters of his constituency and his God have the authority to determine his political future. Denied a party nomination doesn’t mean out. To use the Bahamian vernacular “you ain’t pass nothing till ya dead.”
Minnis can take comfort of some historical of extraordinary political comebacks, namely that of political figures of India’s Indira Ghandi and former American president Richard Nixon.
India’s Indira Gandhi, after losing power in 1977 following her controversial Emergency period, was briefly expelled from the Congress Party. She formed her own party faction and won a parliamentary seat in 1978. By 1980, Indira staged a dramatic comeback as Prime Minister.
American Richard Nixon, after losing the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy and then suffering a devastating defeat in the 1962 California gubernatorial race, Nixon was considered politically finished. His infamous “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” press conference seemed to mark the end. Yet just six years later, he won the presidency in 1968 and was reelected in 1972.
