The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

He has only been in office for a couple of months, but Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Iram Lewis said he was continuing a robust programme that was left in place by former ministers Lanisha Rolle and Michael Pintard.

Formerly the Minister of State in the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, Lewis was sworn in by Governor General Sir Cornelius A Smith, as he replaced Rolle as she abruptly resigned as the first Bahamian female minister of sports. With the elections set, Lewis said he has enjoyed the brief stint in office.

“I want to commend those who served before me, Michael Pintard and Lanisha Rolle. They would have left some initiatives that were started,” he said.

“Those that worked well we continued and those that we had to pivot, we pivot to try and make it even better.

“We have a great staff at the ministry, a great support group from the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, great support from my parliamentary colleagues and great support from the sporting community, the cultural community and the youth arm of the Bahamas, so it’s been going well.”

Like everything in life, Lewis admits that there have been challenges he’s faced, but they’ve been able to make the necessary adjustments to get the job done.

“Coming into it, I can’t take the credit for the success of the Olympic Games. I was just sitting in the chair when it happened. Of course, I was aware of projects that existed and I supported them,” he said.

“Going into the Olympics, we understand how important it was for the team to be properly funded and we have given the Bahamas Olympic Committee the largest grant in the history of government grants to sporting bodies and it was certainly worth the while.”

With the grant of $100,000 to the BOC and further assistance from his fellow Olympian Renward Wells from the Ministry of Health, Lewis said the Bahamas was able to be fully represented by a nine-member team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, bringing home two gold medals from Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the men’s and women’s 400 metres.

As a two-time Olympian, having represented the country as a sprinter in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia and 2000 in Sydney, Australia, Lewis was criticised by some for not making the trek to lend his moral support to the team in Japan.

But Lewis said there was a logical reason for his absence and he hoped that the naysayers would understand the rationale behind his decision.

“It was not about me. It was about the athletes,” he pointed out. “I know there were certain restrictions and I couldn’t have done anything in Tokyo that other ministers in the past would have been able to do. Because of the restrictions, we would be limited to being in the hotel. So my Director of Sports, Tim Munnings, who is also an Olympian, and myself, made the decision to give the team all the support that they needed. The money that we would have spent would not have been worth it with all of the challenges that we faced. So we decided to support them in the way that we did.”

Having held a weekend of events to officially welcome home Gardiner and Miller-Uibo along with teammates Samson Colebrooke, Megan Moss and swimmer Izaak Bastian, Lewis said they further ensured that the Bahamian taxpayers’ money was spent in the proper way. Having seen the completion of the world’s biggest international event, which was postponed a year ago because of COVID-19, Lewis said he’s eager to look forward to continuing the local programmes that’s on the agenda for his ministry.

“We had to suspend our summer programme.because of Covid-19, but we do have upcoming events like the return of the Bahamas Games in 2023,” Lewis revealed. “We have the Games Secretariat in place.

“We’ve done all of the necessary works to have their bank account open up and to have their administrative structure in place. They will operate lie an authority in itself as a secretariat where they continue to do their work. This is not about politics, even though the elections are now set for this year.”

With the country preparing for its Golden 50th anniversary in 2023, Lewis said the government sort fit to host the games as a part of the celebrations for the country as it would involve activities taking place in the some of the major islands.

He noted that retired Director off Sports, Martin Lundy, is now in charge of the Games Secretariat and he’s currently putting all of the infustruture in place and formulating the various committees.

“We’re ensuring that we have everything in place because this is not going to be the Nassau Games or the New Providence Games. These will be the Bahamas Games,” he insisted.

“Having said that, the intention is to have certain portions of the games staged on Grand Bahama, Exuma, Andros and Eleuthera, just to ensure that we spread the opportunities around to the other islands so that they can get the exposure and for us to provide some economic growth to those islands outside of New Providence.”

With the games fast approaching, Lewis said they are also working peevishly to make sure that the sporting facilities are up to par and that the new national baseball stadium is completed.

He noted that the Ministry of Works, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister, has full responsibility for the competition of the stadium and in short order, will be making a statement on the total cost incurred.

“They are continuing their assessments, but I’ve toured the facility and I see it as a wonderful addition to our sporting structures and whatever we have to do, we will do to get it done, even though it’s costing us more than it originally intended,” Lewis said.

“We have to find a way to finish it off effectively and efficiently and have a maintenance team in place to make sure that we have extended use of it with some many players making their presence felt at the major and minor leagues.”

Although the Bahamas has lost the hosting of the World Athletics’ World Relays after the first three editions were held here, Lewis said there are still a number of provide entities seeking to continue with their sporting programmes here and there are a number still on the drawing board for the future.

“In light of the uncertainties ahead of us with Covid-19, we have to look at the viability and the sustainability of it and to wherever it is viable, we we will go ahead and partner with them,” he charged.

“We just want to continue to take sports to the next level,” Lewis stressed. “We liked what we saw at the Olympic Games, we’re impressed with our players in Major League baseball, in the NBA and the WNBA.

“I’m in contact with our athletes on a daily basis. I am talking to Michael Strachan in the NFL, I went over to watch Jazz Chisholm play and he gladly accepted the Bahamian flag and is going to fly it high whenever he’s plying. So opportunities are being created in all sports and even in youth and culture, we’re going to welcome any proposal and to make sure that our people are given every opportunity to succeed.”

Lewis, however, is agitating for Bahamians to take the vaccines to to help the country, not just in reopening from a business standpoint, but for sporting activities to resume to some type of normalcy.

“We’re already opening up. We’ve had the national track and field and swimming nationals and even though they didn’t have the full capacity of fans in the stands, we are getting there,” he stated.

“We want to encourage our people to get vaccinated. They have the choice of three different vaccines, so get vaccinated. We’re not making it mandatory, but it is available and so we want to make sure that are people take it so we can get back to opening up the country. I don’t think we will ever get back to where we were 10-20 years ago, but we want to get as close to that as possible.”

Lewis, an architect by profession, will be seeking his second term in office as the MP for Central Grand Bahama on September 16. Having lost his mother just recently, Lewis said he’s committed to the task ahead of him and looking forward to the continued support of the Bahamian community.

“Athletes are very disciplined and very focused,” said Lewis, who hope to be among the five MPs, who keep the FNM mandate in Grand Bahama. “This just didn’t start. We had so many sports persons who went into politics like Sis Lynden Pindling, Perry Christie, Bernard Nottage and the list goes on.

“So this just didn’t start with myself, Renward Wells, Shonel Ferguson and Mr Bannister, who was a very good athlete and an even better sports administrator. This started from long time ago.

“I represented the Bahamas for over a decade and when I competed, I always carried the Bahamas on my chest and not Iram Lewis. So I know what it is to be disciplined and what it is to be focused and do what is needed for the constituencies that we seek to represent.:”

Having being sidetracked by Hurricane Dorian and now Covid-19, Lewis said the FNM administration was unable to complete its agenda, but they’re hoping that the Bahamian people will give them another term to complete the work that they have started.

“I have a wonderful term of supporters on the ground in Grand Bahama,” he said. “I do believe by the grace of God, if we are given another opportunity, the Bahamas will be better off. We just need another chance to continue the work that we have started.”