Rishard Khan
rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
Officials of Howard University are not responding to criticisms of the decision to award Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley an Honourary Doctorate.
Attempts to get comments from Howard's T&T born president Dr Wayne A. I. Frederick have so far been futile. Calls to his Washington DC office have nor been answered.
A request for an interview to explain the rationale for Prime Minister Rowley's selection and the criteria used was emailed to the university. In response, Misha Cornelius, Director of Public Relations at the Office of University Communications said: "I received the media inquiry below. President Frederick is not available for comment on this."
Dr Rowley was presented with an Honourary Doctorate Degree of Letters on Saturday alongside United States President Joe Biden and other honorees. In conferring the degree Frederick, who was received this country's highest award, the ORTT, in 2020, listed improvement to roads, increasing economic growth and education funding and school repairs, among other things.
Frederick also erroneously stated that Rowley was the country's first Prime Minister from Tobago. However, the late ANR Robinson achieved that distinction in 1986.
This has the source of contention, particularly in political circles. On Sunday, Opposition Senator David Nakhid said he believes Frederick, with whom he attended St Mary's College, he was "off the mark." He added that said if the words uttered by Frederick in presenting the degree to Dr Rowley were his own creation, consequences must follow.
"If he thinks that Keith Rowley has done a fantastic job, if he wrote that script himself, then he should apologise to the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. He should give back the award that Rowley bestowed on him, Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and then take back that doctorate from Keith Christopher Rowley who not only doesn't deserve a doctorate but, in my opinion, based on his behaviour in public office, should be facing charges for misbehaviour in public office," he said.
Princes Town MP Barry Padarath described the conferral of the honorary degree as an attempt to prop up a "failed leader" with local government elections approaching.
The move was also criticised by members of the public.