Former Minister of Barbuda Affairs Arthur Nibbs has called for the creation of a talent bank to identify and attract skilled Barbudans living abroad back to the sister island. According to Antigua.news, Nibbs made the proposal during an Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) rally, framing it as part of a broader push for new political direction ahead of the April 30 general election.
Nibbs, a long-standing political figure in Barbuda, used the address to endorse ABLP candidate Kendra Chamberlain Beazer while levelling sharp criticism at the Barbuda People's Movement (BPM)-controlled Barbuda Council.
"We want to create what you call a talent bank of Barbudans," Nibbs told the rally, speaking directly to Beazer. "It's not going to be in dollars and cents. Skills, education, and training."
Nibbs outlined a framework that would map Barbudans living around the world, catalogue their qualifications and professional experience, and develop strategies to bring them home to contribute to the island's development. He tied the proposal to what he described as an over-reliance on foreign workers filling skilled roles on the island.
"Too much of the foreigners have to come because they're doing what you and I can't do," Nibbs said. "So, if you want to correct that, you have to train and educate your people."
The former minister directed significant attention toward the Barbuda Council, which the BPM has controlled for most of the past four decades. While Nibbs maintained that the Council as an institution was sound, he argued its current membership had failed to deliver on core responsibilities.
He pointed to conditions at the island's landfill, which he said had more waste accumulating outside the facility than within it, and identified health, sanitation, roads, and agriculture as areas of notable underperformance.
"Agriculture, that is non-existent," Nibbs said, contrasting present conditions with earlier periods when coconut cultivation was an active local industry.
On sports infrastructure, Nibbs recalled the construction of the island's basketball complex, crediting Tyrone Beazer — the candidate's father — with securing sand through a bartering arrangement that made the facility possible when funding was unavailable.
Nibbs also criticised what he described as politically motivated decisions affecting youth access to sporting facilities, referencing reports that young athletes had been denied lighting at local sports venues despite representing Antigua and Barbuda in international competition.
