Letter to the Editor
28th August, 2013
THE NYGARD SAGA & CLOSURE
Dear Editor,
I hold no personal or professional brief for Mr. Peter Nygard. Let us call a spade a spade, however, and bring closure to this ongoing saga of whether or not the accreted land adjoining his Lyford Cay property was natural, as I suspect that it was, or that he and his servants or agents would have deliberately done it.
Without commenting on the validity of the evidence which might be or have been presented to the judicial system, it seems to me that the best way to bring closure to this ongoing saga would be to grant Mr. Nygard and his corporate vehicle a Thirty (30) years lease to the same, with the appropriate disclaimers and conditions precedent. The same could be renewable for a further period of time in perpetuity.
I would suggest an annual lease of Fifty Thousand Dollars (B$50,000.00) with the proviso that no medical facility could or should be built on that accreted property. If he wants to expand and reconstruct those portions of his residence which were destroyed by fire, then by all means he should be allowed to do so.
Mr. Nygard and his corporate entities have been extremely good to this country and to countless individuals. This is the least that we as a grateful people should offer him. The accreted land would be termed ‘Crown Land’ within the ambits of the law and would still belong to the Bahamian people in perpetuity.
With the expected constructions, hundreds of jobs would be created and with the payment of various fees and taxes, hundreds of thousands of dollars would accrue to the Public Treasury and by extension the people of this nation. Once the proposed facilities are completed, scores of permanent well paying jobs would be generated.
It is for this administration to bring closure to this ongoing saga and to ‘do the right thing’. It is not as if the accreted land is part and parcel of any current Crown Land. There is, in addition, no independent evidence that to lease the same to Mr. Nygrad and his corporate vehicles would cause any provable environmental damages to any other land in the area or at all.
It would appear to me that those shell corporate structures and individuals who are currently opposed to the granting of a lease to Mr. Nygard, et al, may have a bias agenda towards the same. Indeed, I suspect that many of them may well be paid mercenaries and pseudo environmentalists. They do not, I submit, have any real love or concerns for the environment much less the people of this wonderful nation.
There are politicians, et al, out there who will opine that to grant Mr. Nygard a lease would be tantamount to a’ payback’ of some dubious sort. Politics seem to have intruded into every area of national life. The accreted land is of no real use to anyone except Mr. Nygard.
In the circumstances and considering the enormous benefits which this man would have bestowed and continues to do, across the board, to this nation and individuals, I am of the strong view that the accreted land which is, in fact, Crown Land, should be leased to him forthwith. The valuable time and scarce resources of our judicial system are being misused and possibly abused, in my humble view.
The Prime Minister has responsibility for Crown Land and as such, I invite and urge him to immediately cause the appropriate documents to be prepared and executed to bring an end to the Nygard Saga. To God then, in all things, be the glory.
Signed,
ORTLAND H. BODIE JR.
