Transportation, Works and Utilities Minister Kye Rymer will succeed Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley as deputy premier under the new government’s rotating deputy premier system.

“If ever there was an individual who put his money where his mouth is, that person is Honourable Rymer,” Premier Andrew Fahie said in a press release issued last Thursday.

He also stated that he was “proud of the manner in which” Dr. Wheatley, who also serves as minister of education, culture, youth affairs, agriculture and fisheries, “handled himself when circumstances called on him to hold the fort as deputy premier while I attended to other official business abroad.”

He added that Dr. Wheatley “demonstrated great enthusiasm when it came to utilising the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the functions of the office of deputy premier as well as that of the office of premier.”

Mr. Fahie went on to defend the “unconventional” initiative of switching deputy premiers every three months for his government’s first year in office as an exercise in leadership development.

Having so many young legislators without experience, he said, could lead to a situation in which “all the people with the institutional knowledge are retiring out of the system at a very fast rate with no knowledge transfer.”

“You will find that most of the important positions become filled by persons who do not have the experience and the knowledge required to perform immediately,” he added. “And this is because they were never given the chance to get the vital job experience they need.”