The Tribune

PRIME MINISTER Christie has said he cannot wait to take the floor of the House today to clear up the controversy over stem cell research and his and his party’s relationship with fashion designer Peter Nygard.

Nor can we wait for him to take the mike in hand to tell Bahamians when their country was given to Mr Nygard for him to be so bold after the election to proclaim: “Nygard takes the Bahamas back!”

This is once we think Mr Christie has a lot of explaining to do. We would like to know when and by whom was this country given to Mr Nygard for him to so publicly boast after the election that he — mind you, “He” and nobody else – has taken it back.

Mr Christie claims that the media holds the PLP to a different standard than the FNM — that is that the rules are stricter for the PLP. We can only speak for The Tribune, which has only one set of rules by which all are equally judged. The difference is that FNM MPs were less likely to stray beyond the boundaries because of the standards demanded by their former leader. However, under Mr Christie’s leadership, there seems to be no forbidden territory — they all take off like individual sputniks on their own private missions — often with embarrassing results. And so, yes, a closer eye is kept on them. You, see the press usually knows where news is likely to be made.

Mr Christie says we should be telling the public about all those “FNM politicians who does be down at Nygard house — this what they should be telling you about and they want my ministers to resign?”

We are in no position to say whether these FNM visitations are true or not. However, if his account is true there has been no embarrassing fall-out because Mr Ingraham made his stand crystal clear as to his government’s position on millionaire Nygard. Early he drew his line in the sand.

Yesterday Mr Ingraham emphatically denied Mr Nygard’s claim that he had given donations to the FNM in last year’s election. “I didn’t want any donation from him or the likes of him,” said Mr Ingraham after learning of the Nygard statement. “That is why in all of my 15 years in office I never met him.”

We understand that former FNM deputy prime minister Frank Watson was friendly with Mr Nygard. We also understand that as a result he and his leader had a quiet tête-à-tête in the Ingraham woodshed to discuss the matter. We don’t know the outcome, but we certainly know that Mr Nygard understood his place in the country’s political fabric. There was no strutting about with girls and a camera crew in tow as though he were king of all he surveyed.

Nor was there any pilgrimage with wooden staff in hand to make peace with a man of religion, who opposed his development at Nygard Cay.

Rev CB Moss claimed that he had no quarrel with Mr Nygard, but he did oppose his “altering the coastline and adversely affecting the area” at Clifton Cay.

There was nothing wrong for politicians of either party to break bread at Nygard Cay. What was wrong was that one group made the prince of the cay believe that he had more power in the land than most Bahamians — hence these shocking displays of ownership and authority that have so alarmed Bahamians.

According to Mr Moss, “Mr Nygard is having too much to say in the business of the Bahamian people. If he made a request to lease the land, he should wait and see what the government will do, but it seems as though he is badgering the government.”

Land is at the base of the problem — and many claim, possibly with more justification now in view of Mr Nygard’s posturing — that the creation of a stem cell centre is compensation for three acres of land that mushroomed into about six acres through what Mr Nygard claims was accretion. Mr Nygard had paid for the original three acres. It is this so-called accretion to which Rev Moss and the Coalition to save Clifton for Bahamians object.

Mr Nygard, accompanied by a small group of Baptist ministers, visited Rev Moss at his church in Bain Town recently to make peace in an attempt to woe him into the Nygard camp.

“The government of the Bahamas has said that the work was done illegally; the government has said that it has had an adverse effect. Now I’m just quoting the government,” Rev Moss told Mr Nygard.

“The government didn’t say that,” Mr Nygard retorted. Bishop Simeon Hall started to intervene, but Mr Nygard interrupted to explain: “No, no, no, he’s talking about the other government (Ingraham), he’s talking about the previous government that my neighbour bought off to say exactly. So we’re talking about two separate issues completely. The government before that, Perry Christie did not say that, and the government this time is not saying that, nor did any surveyors report say that.”

With cameras still rolling, the scene captured Mr Nygard, staff in hand, flanked by his religious friends, leaving Rev Moss’ church. Mr Nygard grumbles about Rev Moss claiming that government had said that his reclamation activities were illegal.

“We have to make certain that (this) government is not saying it, that’s all,” soothes Rev McPhee.

We do not think that anyone would have dared make such a commitment on government policy on behalf of then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

And so, Mr Christie, we want to hear more than the future of stem cell research in the Bahamas. Bahamians want to know just where Peter Nygard fits in the scheme of things. When they went to the polls last year, they thought they were voting for Perry Gladstone Christie, only to now learn that it was Peter Nygard who took the Bahamas back.

Clarification is needed – according to Mr Nygard he has “been dedicated to this country more than any single person in this whole country”… now that is really saying something.

Many people over the years have been very generous to this country and its people, but they give quietly and with dignity, expecting nothing in return.