☀️ Good Morning, Guyana! It’s Sunday, February 8, 2026. Mashramani season is building, Black History Month is in full swing, and the Budget debate has wrapped up with the kind of fireworks that make Parliament more entertaining than Netflix. Grab your tennis roll and butter and let’s get into it.
🛢️ EXXON NOW OWNS ALL FOUR OIL SHIPS — CONGRATULATIONS TO THEM, WE GUESS
Kaieteur News reports that ExxonMobil has completed its US$2.3 billion purchase of the fourth and largest Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel in the Stabroek Block. That means Exxon now owns the Liza Destiny, the Liza Unity, the Prosperity, and now the big new one outright. Four FPSOs. All theirs.
To put this in perspective: a man who rents your house, uses your electricity, eats your food, and now bought the furniture too — but he still calling it YOUR house. Guyana is the landlord who somehow ends up sleeping on the couch.
The absence of ringfencing continues to be the gift that keeps on giving — to Exxon. Every dollar they spend on one project gets recovered from the profits of another. It’s like telling your teenager they can spend whatever they want on their car as long as they deduct it from your pension.
📰 Source: Kaieteur News
💀 DR. SINGH PULLS OUT THE PABLO ESCOBAR CARD IN PARLIAMENT
Guyana Chronicle reports that Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, wrapping up the Budget debate on Thursday, warned against using politics as a shield from criminal accountability — and then casually dropped a Pablo Escobar reference while discussing publicly available information about the Opposition Leader.
“I have simply quoted from public documents,” Dr. Singh said, with the energy of a man who brought a PowerPoint to a fistfight.
He warned citizens not to get “ensnared” by political movements that might expose them to legal harm. Basically: don’t follow somebody off a cliff just because they’re wearing a nice suit. The Pablo Escobar comparison — using politics to escape criminal prosecution — is the kind of thing that makes budget debates in Guyana appointment television.
📰 Source: Guyana Chronicle
🍼 MIRACLE BIRTH AT GPHC — DOCTORS BEAT RARE BLEEDING DISORDER
Kaieteur News brings us the good news of the week: doctors at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation successfully delivered a baby from a mother suffering from a rare bleeding disorder. Both mother and baby survived what was described as a “miracle birth.”
In a country where we spend most of our time arguing about budgets and oil contracts, it’s worth pausing to acknowledge that GPHC doctors just performed medical heroics with whatever resources they had. These are the people who deserve front-page headlines every single day. Somebody buy that medical team a whole rotisserie chicken.
📰 Source: Kaieteur News
😤 OPPOSITION LEADER TEARS INTO BUDGET: “IT WON’T LIFT THE MASSES”
Stabroek News reports that Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed delivered a scorching critique of Budget 2026, declaring it will not lift the masses out of poverty and warning of the “misspending of burgeoning oil wealth.”
Meanwhile, Guyana Chronicle ran approximately fourteen articles explaining why the budget is actually the greatest thing since sliced bread, with headlines including “Guyanese Deserve This Budget,” “This Is A Vision, Not Just A Budget,” and “PPP/C Always Put People First.”
The Budget debate has essentially become two completely different movies playing simultaneously. One is a triumphant sports underdog story. The other is a dystopian thriller. Both claim to be documentaries.
📰 Sources: Stabroek News, Guyana Chronicle
🔒 “REDACT IT, DON’T BURY IT” — AMANZA ON THE GDF HELICOPTER CRASH REPORT
Kaieteur News reports that the Government is hiding behind “national security” to withhold the investigation report into the GDF helicopter crash. The call is simple: if there are sensitive parts, redact them. But release the rest. The families deserve answers. The public deserves transparency.
Using “national security” as a blanket excuse is like putting a tarp over your entire yard because you don’t want people to see one pothole in the driveway.
📰 Source: Kaieteur News
💡 $25.4 BILLION FOR GREEN POWER — RENEWABLE CAPACITY UP SEVENFOLD
Kaieteur News reports that Government has boosted renewable energy capacity sevenfold over five years, with $25.4 billion invested in green power. The Amelia Falls hydropower project (65 megawatts) is moving forward, and Minister Indar confirmed that a 300-megawatt gas-to-energy power plant is coming.
Good news for the environment. Also good news for anyone who’s ever had GPL cut their current in the middle of a cricket match. The real question: when the new power comes online, will GPL finally stop blaming “load shedding” for everything?
📰 Sources: Kaieteur News, Guyana Chronicle
📚 GTU CONDEMNS EDUCATION MINISTER FOR DISCLOSING TEACHER’S PERSONAL INFO
Kaieteur News reports that the Guyana Teachers’ Union has condemned Education Minister Priya Manickchand… wait, sorry — Education Minister Sonia Parag for publicly disclosing a teacher’s personal information. Whatever the context, outing a teacher’s private details publicly is not a good look for anyone, let alone the person in charge of the entire education system.
Stabroek News editorial separately noted that nobody really knows what’s going on inside Guyana’s education system — how good the teacher training actually is, what the curriculum emphasis looks like, or how students are actually performing. Lots of buildings going up. Less clarity on what’s happening inside them.
📰 Sources: Kaieteur News, Stabroek News
💰 “$25,000 A MONTH KEEPS PEOPLE POOR” — MAHIPAUL ON PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Kaieteur News reports that opposition MP Ganesh Mahipaul is demanding a forensic audit of the public assistance programme, arguing that $25,000 per month is keeping people in poverty rather than lifting them out. He’s not wrong about the math — $25,000 a month in 2026 Guyana barely covers rice and cooking gas, let alone anything resembling dignity.
📰 Source: Kaieteur News
🇬🇾 CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH — 400 YEARS OF AFRICAN PRESENCE IN GUYANA
Guyana Chronicle features a deep piece on Black History Month 2026, which this year carries double significance: 100 years since the first Negro History Week AND 400 years since the arrival of Africans in Guyana. ACDA’s Eric Phillips is pushing hard for schools to teach more history: “We do not teach history in the school, which forces us to not understand who we are.”
Plans include an African village exhibition, school visits across 20 schools, and heritage documentation. This is the kind of cultural preservation work that makes a nation, not just an economy.
📰 Source: Guyana Chronicle
🇻🇪 ALI TO GDF: “GUYANA MUST NOT BLINK” ON VENEZUELA
Stabroek News published a letter referencing President Ali’s address to the GDF Officers’ Conference, where he made clear that “the present situation in Venezuela does not remove or diminish the threat to Guyana’s territory.” His message: readiness isn’t assembled when trouble arrives — it’s built quietly, steadily, and professionally.
With US military activity in the Caribbean and Venezuela’s Maduro situation still volatile, the message to the GDF is clear: stay sharp.
📰 Source: Stabroek News
🏗️ QUICK HITS
- $298M new primary school coming for St. Cuthbert’s Mission (Kaieteur News)
- 19 contractors bid for asphaltic overlay works on Heroes Highway (Kaieteur News)
- CARICOM private sector backs sugar refineries in Guyana and Belize (Kaieteur News)
- Anna Catherina Day/Night Care Centre officially opens in Region 3 (Stabroek News)
- Guyana Foundation gets Starbucks grant for women’s sewing skills programme (Stabroek News)
- Cuba medical partnership quietly terminated — Guyana now hires Cuban doctors directly under US pressure (Stabroek News)
- CANU seized 161 kg of narcotics plus firearms and ammunition in January (Guyana Times)
- Law school construction to start this year, says AG (Guyana Times)
- Plaza Court Hotel opens on Main Street, Georgetown (News Room)
- Cycling season kicks off with WND Park Series at National Park (News Room)
- West Indies beat Scotland in T20 World Cup opener — Hetmyer explosive half-century (multiple sources)
- GCA crowned DCB U-16 champions at Lusignan (Stabroek News)
📊 THE SCOREBOARD
| Story | Vibe |
|---|---|
| Exxon owns all 4 FPSOs | 🛢️ Landlord sleeping on couch |
| Dr. Singh vs Pablo Escobar | 🎬 Parliament is cinema |
| Miracle birth at GPHC | 🍼 Doctors are heroes |
| Opposition tears into budget | 😤 Two different movies |
| GDF crash report withheld | 🔒 Tarp over the yard |
| Green power investment | 💡 GPL redemption arc? |
| Black History Month | ✊ 400 years, teach the history |
| Venezuela threat remains | 🇻🇪 Don’t blink |
That’s your Sunday Brief, Guyana. Budget debate done, cricket season started, and Exxon collecting FPSOs like they’re going out of style. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. See you tomorrow. 🇬🇾
Sources: Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, Guyana Chronicle, Guyana Times, News Room Guyana
The Guyana Daily Brief is satirical commentary on real news stories. All opinions are the author’s own. Always read the original sources for full context.