It happened in 1972 when the leader of the National Democratic Party (NDP) walked into the A. F. Adderley Auditorium and mounted the stage during the Progressive Liberal Party Convention, was embraced by Sir Lynden Pindling, and officially welcomed back into the party that he had walked away from in 1965.

And since history has a way of repeating itself, the PLP is hopeful that one night this week, the leader of the Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) will stride into the convention gathering at the Wyndham Nassau Resort, where he will be welcomed by the party leader on national television and in a blitz of flashing newspaper cameras.

That would certainly add momentum to the festivities that are now in full swing.

If Paul Adderley could leave his followers high and dry then the possibility is it may also be done by Dr. Bernard Nottage who, reportedly has been asked numerous times if he intended to rejoin the PLP but has never given a definitive answer. However, there are hierarchy members of the PLP who feel that the return is imminent.

Perhaps the wilderness experience apart from the party in which he was nurtured and cut his political teeth may prove to be too much and that it is time to come in off the lonely paths to where it is comfortable, with friends all around. Then perhaps he may rationalise that at this point in time it is better to be in an organisation that has national support and could be in the position to implement some of the positive plans he has for nation building, than to be on the outside, with the plans gathering dust and no chance of being fulfilled.

Dr. Nottage may be able to convince his followers that there is no philosophical difference between themselves and the PLP, that they are all moving in the same direction and it would be better if they moved together.

No doubt there will be some who will buy that, particularly those loyalists who left that party along with Dr. Nottage and who helped to organise the CDR. That notwithstanding, there will be others who believed in the cause of the fledgling party, who were recruited on the basis of that belief, who will be sorely let down and who will gravitate away from the PLP.

Dr. Nottage is a fastidious organiser who pays close attention to details and leaves nothing to chance. So if he decides to rejoin the PLP it would have come after long periods of deep soul-searching and consultations with family and close friends. It would be because he firmly believes that it is the right thing to do.