Former Minister of Barbuda Affairs Arthur Nibbs has proposed the creation of a talent bank to identify and attract skilled Barbudans living abroad back to the sister island, as part of a broader call for new political direction during an Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) rally.

Nibbs, a long-time political figure on the sister island, used his address to question the performance of the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM)-controlled Barbuda Council while endorsing ABLP candidate Kendra Chamberlain Beazer ahead of the April 30 general election.

“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 said the proposed framework 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 linked the proposal to what he described as an over-reliance on foreign workers for 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 portions of his address to the operations of the Barbuda Council, which has been controlled by the BPM for most of the past four decades.

Nibbs argued that while the Council as an institution was sound, 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 described health, sanitation, roads and agriculture as sectors in which the Council had underperformed.

“Agriculture, that is non-existent,” Nibbs said, contrasting current 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 allowed the facility to be built when funding was unavailable.

Nibbs criticised what he said were political decisions affecting youth access to sporting facilities, referencing reports that young athletes had been denied lighting at local sports venues despite representing the country in international competition.