By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence (JCNP) says the government’s decision to strip it of control over this year’s Boxing Day and New Year’s Day parades will cost it nearly $1m in losses and damages, a move it calls deeply unfair after decades of partnership.

In a sharply worded letter to Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg, dated October 6, JCNP Chairman Dion Miller said the ministry’s action jeopardises major sponsorship deals with ALIV and Commonwealth Brewery and leaves the organisation no choice but to plan its own private parades.

The JCNP estimates losses of about $747,000, including $355,000 in unpaid sponsorship fees from ALIV, $335,000 from Commonwealth Brewery, and $57,000 it recently spent upgrading its scoring system. It said the change nullifies its contracts and undermines years of collaboration.

Mr Miller gave the ministry seven days to reverse course. Failing this, he said the JCNP will move ahead with its own parades on Boxing Day 2025 and New Year’s Day 2026 — setting up a showdown that could see four Junkanoo parades instead of the usual two, with major groups like the Saxons, One Family and Roots marching under the JCNP’s banner. The fractured Valley Boys have divided their support: the World Famous Valley Boys supports the JCNP and the Way Forward Valley Boys supports the government.

Mr Miller said corporate sponsors have warned that private parades are the only way to avoid breaching existing contracts if the ministry persists with its decision. He noted that the government provides no funding to the JCNP itself, only to member groups participating in the parades, leaving the corporation financially cornered.

“It is important to emphasise that this decision was not arrived at lightly,” Mr Miller said, adding that the JCNP intends to work with the ministry on seating, security and logistics for its proposed events.

The JCNP accused the ministry of abandoning an agreement in principle reached during a September 9 meeting at the Office of the Prime Minister — attended by Mr Bowleg, Attorney General Ryan Pinder and former Court of Appeal President Dame Anita Allen — in which both sides agreed the JCNP would continue managing and administering the parades.

“Remarkably, between 9 September 2025 and 1 October 2025, the ministry has somehow conducted an about-face from its previous, mutually agreed position with the JCNP, without any consultation with or notice to us,” the letter said.

The corporation also dismissed as “manifestly unfair and unrepresentative” a poll cited by the ministry claiming that most Junkanoo groups supported transferring control to the National Junkanoo Committee, saying long-standing groups like One Family and Roots were never invited to take part.

“It is the JCNP’s position that the poll conducted was manifestly unfair and unrepresentative of the will and intent of all Junkanoo groups on the island of New Providence,” Mr Miller said, adding that it remains a mystery who conducted the poll and how it was called.

Beyond the financial blow, the JCNP said the ministry’s actions violated its duty to act in good faith and went against “any generally accepted practice of decency and respect.”

Despite the tension, Mr Miller said the JCNP remains committed to ensuring Junkanoo — “the heartbeat of Bahamian culture” — is celebrated “with fairness, excellence and in a manner befitting the Bahamian people.”

He closed by expressing hope that the ministry would not oppose its efforts to host private parades, reminding Mr Bowleg of his own words during an earlier press conference: “Any Junkanoo groups that wish to have a private parade… this is a free country, they can have a private parade.”