HGP Nightly News – The farm at the centre of the latest political storm did not appear after Irfaan Ali became President, Attorney General Anil Nandlall insists, but, it was part of a commercial agricultural operation dating back roughly 15 years.
Speaking on his weekly programme, Issues in the News, Nandlall said Ali’s agricultural interests were neither new nor concealed.
According to the Attorney General, Ali produced chickens on a commercial scale, cultivated vegetables and operated a fruit-juice business while the PPP/C was in opposition.
“I know this for a fact, and I feel compelled to speak about it,” Nandlall said.
He recalled Ali and his late uncle bringing fruit juices to Georgetown for sale, offering the account as evidence that the President’s involvement in agriculture predated his presidency by several years.
Nandlall said he was not defending Ali merely because he is President. Rather, he insisted he had personal knowledge of the farming activities and believed the public discussion was creating a misleading impression.
“I’m not brown-nosing anybody here,” he said. “I know the President was doing chicken on a commercial scale for the longest while.”
The Attorney General’s remarks came amid controversy over the size, ownership and financing of Ali’s agricultural property, as well as questions about whether his public office contributed to its development.
Nandlall rejected those suggestions as an opposition-manufactured scandal.
He said the farm was not more than 150 acres, as critics had alleged, but covered somewhere between 60 and 70 acres. He maintained that Ali acquired the land before becoming President and financed the project through bank loans.
Ali’s assets and liabilities were also disclosed to the Integrity Commission, Nandlall said.
The Attorney General argued that critics have produced no evidence showing that the President used his office to benefit the farm or entered into a conflict-of-interest arrangement.
“Have you seen any evidence that he acquired a farm while he was President?” Nandlall asked. “Have you seen any evidence that he used the Office of the President improperly?”
He answered his own questions: “None.”
Nandlall said the opposition was relying on the controversy to regain political attention.
“An irrelevant opposition is grabbing onto this alleged manufactured scandal to oxygenise themselves,” he said.
He also dismissed calls for a commission of inquiry, arguing that no one had identified a specific act of misconduct requiring such an investigation.
“Where is the controversy?” he asked. “What are you inquiring into?”
Nandlall further argued that Guyanese law does not prohibit a President, minister or other government official from owning a business while in office. The important question, he said, is whether that business conflicts with the person’s public responsibilities.
He pointed to his own commercial properties in Georgetown, which he said were acquired before he became a minister or while the PPP/C was out of office.
“If [business interests] do not conflict with my governmental activities, then there is nothing wrong with that,” he said.
“If we want to change that, then we should change the law. But unless it is changed, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.”
That distinction sits at the centre of the controversy. The mere ownership of a farm is not, on its own, evidence of misconduct. The sharper questions are whether the President’s interests were fully declared, whether official decisions affected those interests and whether the farm received any advantage unavailable to ordinary citizens.
Nandlall maintains that Ali’s assets were properly disclosed and that no preferential treatment occurred. He said those making contrary claims must now produce evidence to support them.
