Cudjoe: Don’t vote for me, vote for you

Tobago West MP Shamfa Cudjoe has urged Tobagonians to remain focused as the island "is good and getting better."

Speaking last Thursday at a People’s National Movement (PNM) meeting at the Patience Hill Community Centre, Cudjoe told supporters the time had come for people to mind their own business.

“Vote for you. Mind your children’s business... vote for them. This is about you looking out for your own interest," Cudjoe urged.

“It’s not about voting for me, it’s about voting for yourself. Don’t vote for me, vote for you... vote for the party and the policies that puts your life in order, that helps you reach your aspirations, that is good not just for you but for your children and for your children’s children. Vote for yourself and for your family and for your generation. Don’t think this is about sending Shamfa to Trinidad... I could go Trinidad on my own."

She added: “Sometimes you get caught up in I not voting for Kelvin, he see me in town, and he didn’t say hi. Or... I don’t like that one, since she get big she don’t talk to nobody... this is not about the person, this is about policies that changes lives, this is about sound leadership, this is about steering the country and yes we talk about good people because good people deliver good politics.

“This opportunity that we have right now... being in power in Tobago, being in power in Trinidad led by a Tobagonian as Prime Minister and we see other Tobagonians in other high offices in Trinidad and Tobago and we are proud indeed."

Cudjoe, who is also the Sport and Youth Affairs Minister, said the developments taking place in Tobago are the result of strong cooperation "because I could remember the days of Mr Orville London, our then Chief Secretary when the UNC was in power in Trinidad and he couldn’t even get a meeting out of the Prime Minister. The budget would read and we would get zero dollars for URP and for our social programmes.

“So you see this working together, this cooperation, it is something we ought to be very, very happy about. We’re finally seeing the problems related to airlift being treated with, we’re finally seeing improvements on the sea bridge and as much as they’ve tried to make chaos out there, we have provided a boat, a ferry that is of top quality... we have never seen that kind of standard of quality in an inter-island ferry in the history of this country and on top of that, even in a time of economic hardship we have ordered two brand new ferries, being built to specifications to serve this Trinidad and Tobago... that is putting Tobago first,” she said.

Cudjoe said for the first time in the island's history, the bill for internal self-government for Tobago is at the Parliament.

"It has never gotten there to the point of Joint Select Committee. We are about serious development for the people of Tobago.”