Remarks by
The Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie, M.P.,
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
Commonwealth of The Bahamas
at
The Official Opening and Naming of the
“PAUL L. ADDERLEY BUILDING”
Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs
John F. Kennedy Drive
Friday, 27th June, 2014 at 11:00 a.m.
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Deputy to the Governor General, Dame Marguerite Pindling
Mr. Chief Justice
Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers
Members of the Judiciary
Members of the Clergy
Senators
Members of Parliament
Permanent Secretaries and other Senior Government Officials
Mrs. Lillith Adderley and family
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning
This eminent occasion, is most essentially about honouring the memory
and to etch in the public consciousness for generations to come the life and
legacy of a great Bahamian, the late Hon. Paul Lawrence Adderley. It is only
fitting that I should begin by paying tribute and respect to his widow, Lillith and
their daughters Roseanne, Catherine and Paula and their families.
We sometimes tend to forget that public personalities also have a private
side and no matter the public accolades and tributes paid to such figures, it does
not mitigate the private and personal loss of losing a loved one. It is real and
personal. And so I pay tribute to the Adderley family and offer the grateful
thanks of the Government and the people of this nation for the service that he
rendered in his long years of public service going back to 1962 when he was first
elected as a member of the House of Assembly for the Western district of New
Providence. From that point on and right up to the time of his death he gave of
his best to our nation. We pay tribute to the Adderley family for this service.
In the ebb and flow of history, it is remarkable that each generation
brings to the fore a few outstanding individuals, who by their efforts, both
individually and collectively make a mark and, indeed, place a stamp on that
particular era. We in The Bahamas have produced a cadre of such men as we
look back on the last five decades and among the most notable of them must be
the Hon. Paul Lawrence Adderley.
Many of this current generation might only know him as a remote and
sometimes inaccessible figure. For us who shared the stage with him and who
fought the searing battles that needed to be fought when the sovereignty and
indeed the very existence of The Bahamas were being tested, we know better.
We knew him in the full bloom of his life, when illness and age had not wearied
him and when he forged fearlessly ahead into whatever battle, whatever task
that the political and policy landscape of our nation demanded in those nascent
days of our independence.
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In speaking of the Hon. Paul L. Adderley this morning, I wish to commend
to you the words of Barack Obama, President of the United States of America,
who once said, “Only a handful of men and women leave an imprint on the
conscience of a nation and on the history that they helped to shape...”
The late Paul Lawrence Adderley was such a man who left an indelible
mark on the lives of many persons in our country. He was a National Hero; a
man of integrity; the very embodiment of excellence in everything that he did.
He was a man of dauntless courage, a giant of a man, a prince among men.
Paul Lawrence Adderley was a patriotic Bahamian who loved his country
and its people dearly. This was evidenced by his numerous interactions and
willingness to assist persons from all walks of life – wherever and whenever he
could and in the fact that he would dress down anyone who dared to attack the
sovereignty of this Bahamas. No other nation came before The Bahamas; it held
pride of place for him and woe betide the individual or the country that sought to
besmirch the integrity and sovereignty of his beloved Bahamas.
Greatness is not something given, rather something gained. Greatness is
measured by an individual’s honest pursuit of desired goals, not how much the
individual amasses. As I look at persons gathered today, I am reminded of the
words of Thomas Carlyle, ‘Show me the man you honour, and I will know the
kind of man you are; for it shows me what your ideal of manhood is; and what
kind of a man, you long to be.’
I say to The Bahamas, “Show me the sons you honour and I will show
you the mettle, the resolve, the integrity of which you are made”.
Today I proudly open and name this building in honour of the Honourable
Paul Lawrence Adderley, as a testament to the quality of the lives birthed by this
nation. The Bahamas is a more proud, strong and respected nation, because of
the commitment to service and the belief in its development by men like the
Honourable Paul L. Adderley.
On the occasion of his State Funeral in September, 2012 I spoke at length
regarding Mr. Adderley and so there is no need to reprise all that was said at the
time as much of it is in the public domain. But Paul Lawrence Adderley was
many different things to many people. That is what made him so extraordinary:
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There was Paul Lawrence Adderley- the lawyer’s lawyer - brilliant lawyer
and attorney and ethical to a fault
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There was Paul L. Adderley, the gifted statesman, Attorney General and
Minister of the Government.
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Paul L. Adderley the trusted friend, advisor and confidante.
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And Paul L. Adderley the loving and devoted husband and father.
All of these incredible singular attributes when intertwined made Paul
Adderley the great man that he was.
His biography is well known to all here assembled and need not be
repeated. What is clear is that his education and upbringing equipped him well
for the future roles that he would undertake, in his private avocation and his
public life.
The sobriquet, “legal scholar” has been used by many to describe this
legendary Bahamian, Paul Lawrence Adderley. And that he was. His legal abilities
were formed by prodigious research, a sound and basic understanding of
Jurisprudence in the fullest meaning of the term and an unfailing and
unassailable clarity of logic in his presentation.
Paul Adderley was ranked among the finest lawyers The Bahamas had to
offer. He had the ability to simplify any matter so that those who were for or
against could understand it. His thorough preparation, skill and intellectual
acumen made him a force to be reckoned with in both civil and criminal cases
earning him an amazing number of successes.
Paul Lawrence Adderley, was the consummate statesman, and defender
of the sovereignty of The Bahamas. He, along with others, represented The
Bahamas in the United Kingdom during the Constitutional talks which led to this
country gaining its independence in 1973. He is also best known among
diplomatic circles for his defense of The Bahamas after the airstrikes on our
Defence Force by the Cuban airforce MiGs. Paul Adderley took the fight to the
United Nations General Assembly and succeeded in obtaining an apology and
reparations from the Cuban Government.
It was the Hon Paul L. Adderley who almost single handed stood up to the
then United States Ambassador, Mrs Carol Boyd Hallet and by extension to the
United States Government at a time when The Bahamas was the target of attack
for its role in the transhipment of narcotics to the USA. I recall that almost
weekly, Mr. Adderley would take centre stage at various public meetings and laid
out to the Bahamian people what our country was doing to defend its honour
and guard its borders.
Appointed the first Attorney General of an independent Bahamas in 1973,
he held the post until 1989. His love for his country cannot be questioned as in
addition to holding the post of Attorney General, he served in other key positions
including Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Education, Minister of National
Security, Minister of Finance and served as Chairman of the Hotel Corporation of
the Bahamas. The late Sir Lynden Pindling knew that in Mr. Adderley, he had a
safe pair of hands. For the Hon Paul Adderley, no task was too demanding, no
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burden too onerous, and no personal sacrifice too great if it was calculated to
preserve the Bahamas and move it forward.
But, there was another side, Paul L. Adderley the trusted friend and
confidante. At his funeral, I recounted to the congregation that he was my
friend. He was a man with whom I could confide in, share ideas and listen to his
wise counsel. Upon retiring from frontline politics, the Honourable Paul L.
Adderley became one of my trusted advisors. This notwithstanding, however, he
was always available to meet with, to mentor and to encourage the young Turks
within the Party. I am certain that many of them here will attest to having
benefitted from his sage advice.
And then there was the gentler Paul Adderley - the devoted, loving
husband and father. Married in 1960 to Lillith Rosena (nee Thompson), the
couple was blessed with three beautiful daughters. Paul worked hard to support
and provide for his wife and family, whom he loved dearly. As any adoring father
would, he watched with great pride as his daughters grew up to become
responsible and productive citizens of this country. He was an excellent father,
just as he was a brilliant lawyer and astute politician.
He had his private passions as well.
He was a renaissance man and a scholar in the best meaning of the word.
His interests covered a wide range of subjects and he read eclectically. His
interests ranged from an arcane knowledge of baseball batting and pitching
averages and statistics to being well versed in political philosophy. The internet,
coming so late in his life was well suited for him. Of particular interest to me was
that he had a subscription to the Public Records Office in London and to many of
the top university libraries around the world. He was known to spend hours
trolling these sites for vignettes of Bahamian history and genealogy going back
as far as the records would allow. No wonder, he could argue with force on
nearly most points of Bahamian history.
He was an avid photographer and his collection of Junkanoo photos must
rank among the finest of that art form. Early morning joggers would recall seeing
him at McPherson’s bend with his camera setup on a tripod hoping to get the
best shot of an early morning sunrise.
He was an avid sportsman and unless it was something out of the
ordinary, he would play a game of Golf every Saturday morning. He followed
other sports such as baseball, cricket and football avidly.
And so we have all gathered here today to remember this extraordinary
man, who by his mere existence helped to transform lives and institutions. This
causes us to remember the well-known words penned by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, used so often, but now so meaningfully, “Lives of great men all
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remind us, we must make our lives sublime and departing leave behind us, Foot
prints in the sands of time.”
Paul L. Adderley’s should be etched in the annals of history with greats
who fought for freedom, truth and justice for all. He fought without requiring
honour or recognition steadfastly refusing to be knighted by the Queen as “Sir”.
In his own right and according to his own standards for such honours, he is
being posthumously honoured by the people of The Bahamas today for his stellar
work, his tenacity, endurance and his strength of character
In closing, I leave you with the words of the American novelist and poet,
Josiah Gilbert Holland:
Give us Men! (Like Paul L. Adderley)
Strong and stalwart ones;
Men whom highest hope inspires,
Men whom purest honor fires,
Men who trample self beneath them,
Men who make their country wreath them
As her noble sons,
Worthy of their sires;
Men who never shame their mothers,
Men who never fail their brothers,
True, however false are others:
Give us Men - I say again,
Give us Men!
And while we remember Paul Adderley today, the greatest gift we may
proffer, is to honour the lasting legacy of this great Bahamian to Bahamian
history; it is to pledge to dedicate ourselves to the truth, the pursuit of
knowledge and to the cause for which this great Bahamian dedicated his life.
May his drive for excellence, his thirst for knowledge, his devotion to duty, be a
part of the pervasive spirit that propels all that is accomplished in this building. It
is entirely fitting that this posthumous honour be bestowed upon one so great
and yet so humble.
With the power vested in me as Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of
The Bahamas, I declare that this Structure behind us be named the Paul L.
Adderley Building on this day Friday 27th of June in the year of our Lord Two
Thousand Fourteen.
In making this declaration we honour our dear friend, husband, and
father, national hero, the People's man, the late Honourable Paul Lawrence
Adderley. A plaque signifying this event will be placed in the building. It has
been designed and when completed will be installed as a living testament that
Paul Adderley was true to The Bahamas.
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The Paul L. Adderley Building is now declared officially open.
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