In a recent wide-ranging radio interview on NBC Radio focused primarily on the planned National Development Bank, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Godwin Friday used the closing segment of the broadcast to deliver a heartfelt Mother’s Day greeting and a unexpected, deeply personal appeal to the nation’s people. Friday’s core message was clear: political differences, even unwavering support for him and his ruling administration, should never be allowed to fracture family relationships. For the prime minister, personal and intergenerational family ties must always take precedence over partisan political loyalties.
Opening his informal closing remarks, Friday offered warm holiday wishes to maternal figures across the country, saying, “Mothers are the most precious people on God’s earth. This is truth. I want to wish all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day. I want to wish you a happy mother’s year.”
From there, he expanded his reflection to cover broader questions of family life, directing particular guidance to younger generations of Vincentians. He pushed young people to prioritize their parents and close kin over partisan disputes that have become increasingly common in modern political discourse.
“I would say to young people in particular, … value and cherish your mother, but your parents as well, and in general,” Friday said. “I always tell people I know you love me and so forth, and you campaign and so on, but don’t mash up your family for me. Make sure that you stay close to your parents and your children and so forth, your cousins, your uncles and that. Build that relationship.”
To ground his appeal in personal experience, Friday opened up about a recent loss that reshaped his perspective on life and conflict. He recounted attending the sudden funeral of one of his own cousins, a moment that drove home the extreme fragility and brevity of human life. He noted that too often, people invest time and energy into holding grudges, building political enmities, and planning retaliation against those they disagree with — investments that ultimately mean nothing when life ends unexpectedly.
“I was at a funeral not so long ago, a cousin of mine passed suddenly, and it dawned on me how fragile life is, and how sometimes we make all these plans and we form all these enmities and we want to get back at this person and so forth. And then what happens?” he said. Through this anecdote, he emphasized the ultimate futility of holding personal and political grudges that erode the bonds that matter most.
Closing his reflection, Friday urged all Vincentians to reframe how they spend their limited time. “So I say to people, you have very little time and as the older you get, the less there is. Use it to do good. That’s it.”