Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

For­mer op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor Tahar­qa Obi­ka who joined the PNM in June 2023, was sworn in as a tem­po­rary gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor yes­ter­day.

Obi­ka was sworn in to act for Trade Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon who is over­seas. Obi­ka took the oath of of­fice with his right hand over his heart.

Obi­ka and Vyash Nand­lal who was al­so sworn in to act as tem­po­rary PNM sen­a­tor for So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Don­na Cox were in­tro­duced by gov­ern­ment Sen­ate leader Dr Amery Browne to Op­po­si­tion and In­de­pen­dent bench lead­ers, ac­cord­ing to the usu­al pro­to­col.

Af­ter Nand­lal shook Op­po­si­tion Sen­ate leader Wade Mark’s hand and that of In­de­pen­dent bench leader Dr Paul Richards, Obi­ka al­so shook Mark’s hand with a smile.

Obi­ka was a long-stand­ing UNC mem­ber. He was an op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor from 2017 to 2020. He was al­so a for­mer UNC can­di­date. In 2023 Obi­ka had been the chief econ­o­mist at Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s of­fice and was on the UNC’s na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive as a re­gion­al co-or­di­na­tor.

Obi­ka re­signed from the UNC in June 2023. He was lat­er in­tro­duced by the PNM as one of its mem­bers. Obi­ka as­sist­ed the PNM in Mara­bel­la with Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment polls and has been as­sist­ing the par­ty in the south­west re­gion. He was re­cent­ly men­tioned as a pos­si­ble nom­i­nee for the PNM in the La Brea seat but his name did not go for­ward.

Trib­utes to schol­ar and for­mer in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor

Yes­ter­day, sen­a­tors paid trib­ute to for­mer in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus Harold Ramkissoon who died No­vem­ber 15. Ramkissoon served in the Sen­ate from 2010 to 2013. The Up­per House ob­served a minute of si­lence in his ho­n­our.

Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor Browne said T&T had lost a most dis­tin­guished son of the soil.

“His was an ex­tra­or­di­nary life of ser­vice and lead­er­ship and our na­tion is the bet­ter for it.”

Browne de­tailed Ramkissoon’s ca­reer from Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege to his work with UWI where he be­came the first West In­di­an to have a chair ap­point­ed in his name in the field of math­e­mat­ics, win­ning the first Cari­com Sci­ence award, Cha­co­nia Medal Gold and oth­er awards.

“Two words stand out when you ask his for­mer stu­dents to de­scribe him—bril­liant and in­spir­ing. He knew how to ig­nite the mind and de­vel­op a pas­sion for sci­ence,” Browne added.

Mark said Ramkissoon was an in­tel­lec­tu­al ti­tan and in­dis­putable au­thor­i­ty in the field of math­e­mat­ics.

“Bril­liant, out­stand­ing, ex­tra­or­di­nary son of the soil, he was a very sim­ple in­di­vid­ual, yet hum­ble hu­man be­ing who lived a dis­tin­guished life, an in­di­vid­ual of high ethics, morals, hon­esty and in­tegri­ty - his moral com­pass was ex­treme­ly strong.”

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Hazel Thomp­son-Ahye, added, “His was a life well lived. He served here for a mere three years but his con­tri­bu­tion to the Sen­ate was im­mense and ev­i­denced his love for re­search and ded­i­ca­tion to du­ty, such as was his hall­mark dur­ing his stint at UWI. He had many roles at UWI lo­cal­ly but his out­reach ex­tend­ed to the Caribbean ... he al­so col­lab­o­rat­ed with the In­sti­tute of Gen­der and De­vel­op­ment Stud­ies on ac­tiv­i­ties on women and sci­ence,” she added.

Sen­ate pres­i­dent Nigel de Fre­itas said Ramkissoon was, “A man whose con­tri­bu­tion to acad­e­mia, pub­lic ser­vice and the sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ty left an in­deli­ble mark in T&T and across the world... His life was one of re­mark­able achieve­ment and self­less ser­vice.”