Parliamentary representative for Barbuda and Minister for Agriculture, Land, Fisheries and Barbuda Affairs, Arthur Nibbs, has responded passionately to a news broadcast carried by UK Channel 4 of the situation in Barbuda post hurricane Irma.
The report painted a grim picture of how Barbudans were being treated, as people from Barbuda described themselves as refugees held against their will.
Those interviewed also told the international news agency that the Antigua and Barbuda government wants them out of the island so that they could sell Barbuda land to investors.
But Nibbs, said it was never the government’s intention to keep Barbudans in Antigua any longer than it was necessary.
“It was never the intention of the government because it is very expensive. It’s costing the government upwards of $40,000 a day to keep all the shelters and the people all around the island. So what joy is in that for the government,” he questioned.
According to the minister, the government was only trying to ensure that proper basic facilities, like a medical centre and water and electricity were restored before sending residents back to the island.
But Nibbs said now that the mandatory evacuation is over and the emergency ban has been lifted, Barbudans, who less than a week after being evacuated wanted to go back home, are in villas and hotels “enjoying themselves” and are refusing to go back to rebuild.
“We cannot even get a number of people ready to go back and clean up so that we can advance to the second phase of the rebuilding process…the streets are clean, the public sector areas like the hospital and schools are clean but the people’s home and their yards are in a terrible state,” he told state media.
Nibbs said, it’s extra burdensome on him as a Barbudan going to Cabinet meetings, week after week, and knowing that Barbudans are refusing to clean up.
The number of people travelling daily to Barbuda seemed so insignificant that about two weeks ago the government announced that it was considering hiring Antiguans to clean up the island.
As for keeping the islanders out, to move investors in, Nibbs said those who make this claim are doing it as a “political ploy”.
According to Nibbs, the government doesn’t want to give the people’s lands away, instead the Prime Minister; Gaston Browne was giving Barbudans an option, when he said that they could pay $1 to own free hold titles for their plots of land.
“There will be nobody forced to change the system of land in Barbuda, people have a chance to decide. That is not giving your land away, that is giving you as an individual personal title to the lands that you traditionally occupy,” the minister explained.
Nibbs, however, disagreed with the prime minister, who in the weeks following hurricane Irma, said Barbudans were squatting and so needed to have their lots registered.
“With respect to making a statement calling Barbudans squatters, I do not support that view because they are not squatters. We’ve been on the land for all our years. Yes, we do not have ownership to the land but we are not squatters because we have rights to occupy,” Nibbs said.
