PM Briceño Urges New Agriculture Minister to Take It Slow

Prime Minister John Briceño is clarifying why former Agriculture Minister Jose Mai resigned from Cabinet. He maintains that the former minister has an issue with his back that needs medical attention, further explaining that his resignation was necessary to allow for a new appointment. PM Briceño also praised Mai for the work he accomplished during his tenure. The PM also told the new Minister of Agriculture, Rodwell Ferguson, to not rush in and change everything.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“If you are stepping down from a position you have to resign. We need to appoint a new minister. If you ask for time off, you are still the minister. So, in this case he had to resign. When you look back there are so many other ways you could have handled it better. We remember him coming to Cabinet about a year or so about him falling off his horse. I saw a message that he sent to Cabinet Secretary saying that he thinks he will need surgery. I have images he showed me and he went to more lengths. I assumed because he hurt his back because the fall from the horse, but now he explained that it has been happening for some time now and has gotten chronic. He has one disk already gone and he has to put a prosthesis and also another one being pinched. He must be able to address that issue. if he had asked for a leave of absence I could not appoint another minister. So I have to appoint a minister to be able to take over. And why I believe it will be easier now is because Minister Mai has already put a lot of work. There is a lot of infrastructure there. And I spoke to Minister Ferguson and I said, don’t go and change everything. Just continue building on what has been done. We get caught up with all these things about Minister Mai, but forget the tremendous amount of work he has done as Minister of Agriculture.”