‘Don’t mash up your family for me’ — PM

Prime Minister Godwin Friday has urged Vincentians not to allow political differences — including support for him and his government — to damage family relationships, saying personal and family bonds must come before partisan loyalties.

Speaking on NBC Radio during a wide-ranging discussion on the proposed National Development Bank, Friday used the closing moments of the programme to send a Mother’s Day message and to caution supporters against sacrificing their home life for politics.

“Mothers are the most precious people on God’s earth. This is truth,” Friday said.

“I want to wish all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day. I want to wish you a happy mother’s year.”

Friday then broadened his remarks to address family life more generally, telling younger Vincentians to prioritise their parents and close relatives over political disputes.

“I would say to young people in particular, … value and cherish your mother, but your parents as well, and in general,” he said.

“I always tell people I know you love me and so forth, and you campaign and so on, but don’t mash up your family for me,” Friday added.

“Make sure that you stay close to your parents and your children and so forth, your cousins, your uncles and that. Build that relationship.”

The prime minister linked his appeal to the brevity and fragility of life, recounting a recent personal loss.

“I was at a funeral not so long ago, a cousin of mine passed suddenly, and it dawned on me how fragile life is, and how sometimes we make all these plans and we form all these enmities and we want to get back at this person and so forth. And then what happens?” he said.

Friday used that anecdote to press home his message about the ultimate futility of personal grudges and political enmities.

“So I say to people, you have very little time and as the older you get, the less there is. Use it to do good. That’s it.”