RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

 Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein has vouched for his for­mer col­league

Sen­a­tor Nigel de Fre­itas in his new role as Sen­ate Pres­i­dent say­ing his work eth­ic and ca­ma­raderie make him ide­al for the post.

In a state­ment, Ho­sein said he re­mains con­fi­dent that Sen­a­tor de Fre­itas will serve with "hu­mil­i­ty and dis­tinc­tion. "

"For the last ten months, I had the ho­n­our of work­ing along­side Sen­a­tor de Fre­itas as he held the port­fo­lio of Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for lands. He has left an in­deli­ble mark at the Min­istry, hav­ing spear­head­ed many projects, in­clud­ing the dig­i­ti­za­tion thrust," Ho­sein re­vealed.

He added that de Fre­itas un­der­stood the im­por­tance of land man­age­ment and the Farm­ers Badge Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­gramme.

" Sen­a­tor Nigel de Fre­itas al­so worked to im­prove ef­fi­cien­cy in sev­er­al op­er­a­tional ar­eas of the Min­istry, in­clud­ing our pro­cess­ing sys­tems around land tenure and lease Dis­tri­b­u­tion to long-await­ed re­cip­i­ents of stan­dard Agri­cul­tur­al and Res­i­den­tial Leas­es," Ho­sein ex­plained. 

He added: "Sen­a­tor de Fre­itas served bril­liant­ly as the Chair­man of the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on the Fish­eries Man­age­ment Bill and was in­te­gral to the suc­cess of the TT Agri-In­vest­ment Fo­rum & Ex­po II."

Say­ing the new pres­i­dent's work eth­ic, ca­ma­raderie and at­ten­tion to de­tail are some of his most ad­mirable traits, Ho­sein not­ed: " Sen­a­tor de Fre­itas im­part­ed and shared his pro­fes­sion­al knowl­edge with all."

Ho­sein not­ed that de Fre­itas's pro­fes­sion­al growth was an in­spi­ra­tion to oth­er youths, say­ing he was proud of his ac­com­plish­ments as a col­league and a friend. 

Mean­while, in a state­ment de Fre­itas ex­pressed grat­i­tude for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve.

"Words can­not de­scribe to­day 18 days in­to the New Year, I am hum­bled and grate­ful as I was elect­ed to the role of Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate," he said.

Say­ing he looked for­ward to work­ing with the team, De Fre­itas said he will con­tin­ue to main­tain the high­est stan­dards of de­bate that the Sen­ate is ac­cus­tomed to. 

"To my for­mer Min­is­te­r­i­al col­leagues Kaz­im Ho­sein and Sen­a­tor Avinash Singh and staff at the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries, I wish to ex­tend a spe­cial and heart­felt thank you for wel­com­ing me ten months ago in­to a new role. I am all the bet­ter for the guid­ance and op­por­tu­ni­ty to grow I was able to re­ceive," de Fre­itas said.

He al­so gave thanks to his wife and God.

"In 2015 I was thank­ful for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to beg the youngest Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate. In 2023 I am thank­ful once again for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve as the first To­bag­on­ian and youngest Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate in the his­to­ry of Trinidad and To­ba­go," he added.

He added that "an op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn" not­ing that he re­mains com­mit­ted to his new role.