The Tribune

By INIGO 'NAUGHTY' ZENICAZELEYA

AS hard as I try not to point the deserved finger at certain entities and a particular administration in these trying times, post Hurricane Dorian, this week the MP for Marathon and Minister for the Environment Romauld Ferreira, really got my goat! (Pun intended).

It’s bad enough that the seventy-five million gallon Equinor oil spill in Grand Bahama seemed to be on its way to being swept under the rug.

Now to add insult to injury, Minister Ferreira, according to an article in this week’s Tribune, dropped this nugget in regard to the Equinor oil spill”

“So far, (Equinor) did extensive aerial reconnaissance along the entire western seaboard of Abaco and of course Grand Bahama, they saw two areas of interest but they turned out to be seaweed.

“They used visual and infrared technology to do their scopes. On land, we can confirm that one goat and three birds were impacted by the spill.”

One goat and three birds?

Really?

What about the potential damage if the oil spill seeps into the water table or sea?

Minister Ferreira has long been considered punch drunk in many circles throughout the country, now he seems to be drunk off power, considering how flippant he was with the media while dealing with such a pertinent national issue.

I was shocked that this week he offered nothing of substance, only the “one goat, three birds” report.

How ironic, when you think Ferreira campaigned on protecting the environment after a certain gas leak in his Marathon constituency.

What happened to the well prepared, well versed, pre-election environmental champion who always had an informative, sensible sound bite for the media?

It’s time for Ferreira to get it together!

The government needs to bring in its own ‘‘experts’’ so that we can have a thorough, timely, accurate understanding of “what’s really gern on” with the Equinor spill.

I don’t know about you, but when my Mom used to tell me to clean up my room I would push all my mess under the bed, call it a day, and walk away.

We cannot allow anyone to “mess up” our environment and walk away.

It’s time for our government and it’s ministers to get it together, and come clean or come next election, they’ll get more than three birds from the voting populace.