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The PM attempts to walk away from the billionaire city controversy he helped unleash through the SSZ legoslation.

Basseterre, St. Kitts — SKN Times — In a shocking twist that has left citizens stunned, Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew has taken to social media to wash his hands of the raging controversy surrounding land sales and billionaire “private city” developments under the Special Sustainability Zone (SSZ) framework in Nevis.

Dr. Drew, in a stunning declaration posted to his verified page, insisted that neither he nor the Federal Government has any role to play in Nevisian land use. “The Constitution is clear,” Drew wrote, “that neither the Federal Government nor the Prime Minister has any input on land use in Nevis, except for matters of national security, customs and immigration.”

Yet, this remarkable attempt at distancing comes only weeks after the very same Prime Minister proudly championed and piloted the passage of the Special Sustainability Zone Authorisation Bill, 2025, which provides the legal framework paving the way for vast tracts of Nevisian land to be carved up for foreign billionaires and exclusive enclaves under the guise of “sustainability.”

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Drew the Champion… and Now Drew the Denier

On August 11, 2025, Dr. Drew stood in the National Assembly and declared the passage of the SSZ Bill a “historic milestone” in the Federation’s development journey. He boasted that the legislation was designed to attract foreign direct investment, create long-term jobs, and protect the environment under the umbrella of his government’s Sustainable Island State Agenda (SISA).

“The Special Sustainability Zone framework brings structure, transparency, and accountability to our national development agenda,” Drew had proclaimed with great pride.

Fast-forward one month, and the Prime Minister now claims land in Nevis “is not his business,” urging critics not to involve him or the Federal Government in the unfolding land saga.

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The Contradiction at the Core

Critics say Drew’s latest statement reeks of political double-speak and outright hypocrisy. How can a Prime Minister who designed, championed, and passed the very law enabling SSZ projects now pretend to have no stake in how it unfolds on Nevis?

Observers note that the legislation was crafted at the Federal level and passed in Basseterre — not Charlestown — under the authority and leadership of Dr. Drew and his Cabinet. The Nevis Island Administration, they argue, is simply left to implement a framework that was federally imposed.

“This is political cowardice at its peak,” one civic leader fumed. “The Prime Minister cannot trumpet a Bill in Basseterre one month, then hide behind the Constitution the next month when the people of Nevis begin to see the true implications of billionaire land grabs and the erosion of local ownership.”

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Nevis at the Crossroads

The unfolding SSZ debacle has sparked fury across Nevis, with residents alarmed at reports of hundreds of acres being earmarked for foreign-led projects — what critics are calling “private billionaire cities.”

Pastor Lincoln Connor, in a fiery sermon that has gone viral, warned against selling out the island’s patrimony: “Some of us have become so thirsty that we are willing to sell the clothes off our back for one drop of water.” His words echo the deep unease among Nevisians who see their land slipping away under the banner of “sustainability.”

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A Historic Misstep?

The SSZ Bill was sold as a progressive, futuristic policy to anchor St. Kitts and Nevis in the global sustainability movement. But with the Prime Minister now scrambling to distance himself, it has quickly mutated into one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the Federation’s history.

Was this the dawn of a bold new era — or the beginning of a catastrophic sellout of Nevisian patrimony?

For now, one thing is clear: Prime Minister Terrance Drew’s attempt to disassociate himself from the Nevis land debacle may go down as one of the most politically stunning, contradictory, and self-damaging moves of his tenure.