Category: Politics

To Dr. Ifeoluwa Abiose Arowosoge who represents Ekiti South West/Ikere/Ise-Orun Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, any budget proposal without the people as its focus is useless.

Though he commended the early presentation of the 2013 budget, Arowosoge said the House would ensure accountability, transparency and full implementation of budget, adding: “The House is currently reviewing the performance of the 2012 budget before passing the 2013 Appropriation Bill. Without good performance of the 2012 budget by the executive, it would not be wise for us to pass the 2013 budget. As we speak, budget is just at about 35 per cent implementation level which is a very poor performance.”

He therefore maintained that President Goodluck Jonathan deserves both praises and knocks over his 2013 Appropriation Bill, which he said, was being considered by the legislature.

He expressed delight that the “Budget of Fiscal Consolidation with Inclusive Growth” gives lion share to the security sectors for the second year running, saying: “It is a good idea to give priority to the security sector in view of the high level of insecurity in the country. The remote cause of insecurity in the country is unemployment of the teeming youths which should be addressed equally.”

The second highest allocation of N426.53 billion to education, to him, is fair as according to him, education is the bedrock of the future development of the nation. However, he lamented that the amount fell short of UN/UNESCO recommendation for education.

He described as inadequate, the N1.54 trillion (33.3 per cent of total budget of N4.92trillion) allocated for capital expenditure, owing to the urgent need for infrastructural development in all sectors of the economy. “Though it is an improvement over the previous years, it is not enough to guarantee positive socio-economic transformation that will improve people’s welfare in the present-day Nigeria.”

“The removal of import duty and Value Added Tax on all imported commercial aircrafts/spare parts; agricultural/solid minerals machinery/spare parts and completely knocked down components for mass transit buses, of at least 40-seater capacity, are good incentives for economic growth of these sectors. It is commendable and Nigerians should seize the opportunity to invest in these areas,” the lawmaker further said.

The agricultural sector, he said, deserved more than N81.4billion (a mere 5.23 per cent of total capital budget) allocated to it because it is the sector that can guarantee food security and an employment opportunity for the nation’s teeming youths. He maintained that “the sector should be on the priority list of the government, if we are to promote agriculture.” “We are all aware of the unprecedented floods which ravaged many parts of our country, causing massive destruction of farmlands that may result in food shortage in 2013. Therefore, more funds should be provided for the agricultural sector to meet the flood recovery, food production plan and the creation of 3.5 million jobs proposal of the federal government. Without jobs opportunities/food security, no meaningful development can take place at the grassroots. United Nations recommends at least 10 per cent annual budget for agriculture and many African countries are meeting this target,” Arowosoge explained.

Appreciating the seeming improvement in the power sector with the ongoing reform, he expressed the hope that the ongoing privatization of the generation and distribution companies would spur improved performance in the sector, noting that if the feat was improved upon, it might be the beginning of the nation’s economic revival.

He also expressed the readiness of the House to pay urgent attention to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently awaiting consideration. “We will ensure that the bill brings major reforms and ensure accountability, transparency and efficiency in the sector. We will also encourage and support the government in cleaning up corruption from the management of the petroleum industry,” he said.

Just two years in the saddle as governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi has taken steps to translate his administration’s eight-point agenda into evident development in many areas of people’s needs, writes SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN.

For about seven months after assuming office as Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi carried ‘the slow governor’
tag. Obviously, out of desperation, many had expected him to wield the magic wand to change their story overnight, especially as regards the decrepit infrastructure across the state.
The roads, easily the closest to the people and which are among the indices of people’s assessment of government’s performance or non-performance, either rightly or wrongly, had worsened from being bad to the impassable.
The situation had topped the list of other reasons on ground for critics and cynics to hurl expletives at a governor popularly acclaimed at inauguration as “the messiah”.
Unfortunately, according to the deputy governor, Mrs. Funmi Olayinka, “the roads didn’t go bad suddenly; dilapidation has always been a process; a process that had survived at least seven years before Fayemi assumed the leadership of the state.”
The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation in the state, Hon. Funminiyi Afuye equally noted: “The governor never lost sight of the evident degeneration of the social infrastructure or his election avowal of more abundant life for citizens. His focus on and interest in planning would not make him engage in any haphazard project execution however urgent or politically attractive it might seem.”
The redoubtable literary critic and poet, Odia Ofeimum, supported the view. He said: “The reason for Fayemi’s initial slowness could be understood, given the scale of work to be done (on roads and other areas) and how to reach for more fundamental course to engender reversals without raising unnecessary dust among the establishment, even while massing up needed quantum of resources to launch changes decisively and without disruptions”.
The governor himself summed it up, saying: “The imperatives of transparent and purposeful governance require a creative overhaul of the subsisting system which has to advance traditional expectations of the public beyond bland demands for food, clothing and shelter.”
This probably explains why, early in the campaign period, he came up with an Eight-Point Agenda meant to provide answers for the myriad malaise which “commonly bedevils existence mostly where governance runs foul of legitimate and popular yearnings.”
But two years after, how far has Fayemi gone in delivering what Afuye described as “the ideal type governance” as summed up in the Agenda?
In fact, the eight points, including governance and infrastructural development; modernising agriculture; education and human capital development; healthcare services; industrial development; tourism; gender equality and empowerment, have become popular lately, not just as refrain in speeches and comments of ranking officials of the state but “for representing/summing government actions on evident programmes and projects.”
True to the avowal of the governor himself as complemented by the Information Commissioner’s statement that the “the year (2012) would be one of consolidation”, it’s easy to take general stock of several achievements now rather than a trickle flow it essentially was in the first year. To the administration, the Agenda is the plinth upon which every other item on the agenda is based; the spirit that drives the administration.
Quite often considered “a stickler to perfection and a fearsome humanist who has transcended the pettiness of partisan conducts in spreading enduring/useful effects of governance among the citizenry”, he has shown it in all project executions ranging from road among other infrastructure; agriculture, free health missions, social security scheme for the elderly, tourism development to educational advancement drives.

Transforming the capital city

Beginning with tasteful completion of all the structures hitherto at various level of decay across all parts of the state, which were ‘abandoned’ by past administrations, the government has since moved on to revamp Ado, the state capital with all-encompassing road constructions alongside street/traffic lamps. It is through what is now known as the state’s revolutionary urban renewal initiative.
Most inter-township roads embarked upon by the administration across the 16 local government areas of the state have been significantly completed, aside the five-kilometre roads he has been constructing in council areas. Simultaneously, he has been busy attending to some decrepit federal roads across the state.
No fewer than 17 roads totaling approximately 157 kilometres have been completed in the state while 30 others, about 1,900 kilometres in length are ongoing. Government has since commissioned 12 of the completed roads.
Besides, the administration has begun laying cyber-optic cables in the ICT sector, which, at completion, would ease tasks and reduce costs of transacting all manner of internet-aided businesses. Samsung has located an engineering academy in the state while an airport is said to be underway with the recent submission of a comprehensive report on same by the Chief Afe Babalola-led panel.
Well over 20 communities have been connected to the national grid and over 200 electricity transformers distributed among communities, including Irele, Oke Ako, Iyemero, Itapaji, Ilemeso and others that had remained married to darkness for ages.
The completed renovation of Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado, perhaps lends credence to Fayemi’s avowed commitment to enhancing sports development in the interest of youths in the state.

Restoring pride to Agriculture

Efforts to modernise agriculture have seen the state engage the youth in commercial farming with the successful launch of the Youths in Commercial Agricultural Development (YCAD) in which 150 youths were launched into various specialties of agricultural production with a grant of N500million, each getting N1.4 million for rice, cassava, oil-palm and cocoa production. The initiative, according to sources, is intended to generate 1,500 direct and about 10,000 indirect jobs between now and the end of next year.
Government has equally been up-to-date in paying counterpart fund to other formidable participants in the sector including FADAMA and African Development Programme (ADP), while focused support through training and provision of requisite input, including fertilizers, has been sustained in aid of the Association of Farmers of Nigeria (AFAN).
After the merger of three state-owned universities, namely University of Ado Ekiti (UNAD), University of Science and Technology, Ifaki Ekiti (USTI) and The University of Education, Ikere Ekiti (TUNEDIK), government has furthered targets on ‘education and human capital development’ with the renovation, including re-roofing and quite often wholesale reconstruction of some buildings. About 120 secondary schools out of the existing 180 have benefitted from the programme.
It has also launched a series of unprecedented training and retraining of teachers, at both primary and secondary schools, seen as “core to the intended changes critical to educational advancement in the state.” Also, the state College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti has received a generous dose of attention as evident in improved infrastructural development in the school of late.
The government has also distributed 36,000 units of solar-powered net-book laptop computers free to students out of a target of 100,000 – 11,000 to teachers at minimum cost and another 100,000 units of school bags to public school pupils.
Basic texts in English and Mathematics alongside those of the sciences, Fayemi has said, would soon reach every student as a necessary and complementary icing on the cake of unprecedented reversals in learning and education in state schools.
Clearly a core focus of the administration, ranking fifth on its agenda, ‘healthcare services’ has seen the renovation of structures and upgrading of facilities in the state Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), and the general hospitals/primary health centres across the local governments.
While one state-wide free health mission held January and three-zones follow-up missions which followed last year in Ekiti North, Central and South, yet another round of mission took off again in December last year in Ekiti North.
A combined minimum of 300,000 individuals in all parts of the state have been attended to in an exercise which, according to the Commissioner for Health, Professor Sola Fasubaa, has gulped over N400 million.
Also ongoing are free health services for pregnant women, children under five years, the physically challenged and elderly citizens, aged 65 and above.
Primary health facilities across the 16 local governments have been substantially upgraded with improved staffing combined with encouraging missions. The primary health centres have yielded unprecedented patronage from local peasants unlike before.
The result has come for the state in having not only the highest life expectancy at birth in the country today, but even the lowest in HIV infection besides a zero-rate prevalence of polio cases. To the governor, “we must have been doing something right to achieve these feats.”

Industrialisation and tourism

Industrial development has gained commendable focus from the administration through the resuscitation of the moribund Odua Textile Limited and Ire Burnt Brick Industry to complement achievements at the Ikogosi Bottling Company.
While several other private initiatives are equally springing up across the state, the administration has set up in the three senatorial zones, enterprise development centres currently being built in Ilupeju (Ekiti North), Aisegba (Ekiti Central) and Ijero (Ekiti South). It has also completed the renovation/beautification of the Oodua Enterprisse Development and Skills Acquisition Centre, Ado.
The state has also set up the solid minerals development company while production of cut stones has started in Efon Alaaye under the supervision of Fountain Holdings Limited. It is equally a state government initiative which is undertaking and super-intending several other joint partnerships.
Tourism development which ranks seventh under Fayemi administration’s EPA has since assumed a prominence perhaps more than as envisaged possible within two years.
The successful celebration of the maiden Ekiti festival of Arts and Culture in which about seven states participated represents enduring height of several other turn-around measures aimed at lifting the sector.
These initiatives include but are not limited to the effort to repackage many age-long artifacts buried in the recesses of the traditional palaces and grooves from Ado, Ikere, Efon Alaaye to, Okemesi, Ijero and other towns. It is an effort being spearheaded by the governor’s amiable wife, Erelu Bisi Fayemi.
A major success, however, is the wholesale rejuvenation of the Ikogosi Warm Spring in partnership with the Mantis Group of South Africa alongside efforts to harness well over 200 potential tourism sites spread in almost every major town and villages in the state. The Ikogosi may soon assume a prominence that will confound many pleasantly across the country.
Although, ‘gender equality and empowerment’ ranks last in the administrations EPA goal, its essence resonates in almost all others as manifest in the massive employment generation through initiatives in tourism, agriculture and industrial regeneration.
Specifically, with the launch last year of the Ekiti Youth Volunteer Aids Corps in which 5,000 able youths across endeavours and academic qualifications were employed, several others have been engaged and trained by the State Job Creation and Employment Agency and Ekiti Enterprise Development Agency (EEDA), which has combined both to employ and empower a minimum of additional 3000 youths.
Some of the employees take home not less than N10,000 monthly and have been engaged in the civil/public services or through state supports and attached to other private concerns while, according to Mr. Oskar Ayeleso, Director-General, EEDA, those who have benefitted from skills/trades’ acquisition drives spearheaded by the agency are now profitably self-engaged; some with a retinue of mentored support staff.
According to Director General of the Ekiti State Job Creation and Employment Agency, Mr Folorunso Aluko, while the state has sustained the payment of the monthly stipend which has gulped over N600 million since inception, the target of 20,000 jobs in four years appears achievable.
The initiatives in areas of agriculture, industry and tourism, along with efforts of the EEDA have lately spurned avenues for useful engagement of nearly 10,000 individuals, with potentials to quadruple that figure within four years.

Social welfare for
the aged

Perhaps mention has to be made particularly of the direct economic intervention in the lives of about 20,000 elderly individuals in the state who have clocked a minimum of 65 years through the now popular social security scheme in which beneficiaries are paid N5,000 monthly stipend.
A move popularly acclaimed as first of its kind not only in Nigeria but in whole of Africa, South of the Sahara, the scheme now costs the state not less than N100 million monthly.
The governor explained: “It is a social democratic agenda, acclaimed for being non-discriminatory, consistent and credible. No one asks for your party card. About 20,000 are enjoying it now and we keep improving on the figure as we do update every six months.”
However, aside the developmental programmes coming under the clearly delineable compartments of the EPA are several other efforts which consolidate the agenda as found across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
These other efforts are inclusive but not limited to the successful turnaround in tax administration in the state through the electronic (e) receipt system. They include the recent overhaul of the state fire/medical emergency services which has witnessed recruitment and training of 153 staff, purchase of five fire-fighting engines, six sophisticated ambulances, three water tankers along with the renovation of the three existing Fire Stations at Ikere, Ikole and Ijero.
The greatest achievement of the administration as affirmed by the governor and supported by Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, is perhaps the entrenchment of the culture of law and order. Falana had said: “That people can move freely and transact their businesses without fear/hindrance as typical of some past administrations in the state is an accomplishment which ranks prime among others.”

Teachers, LG staff up
in arms

The administration has nonetheless been facing unrests from labour, specifically the local government staff and the teachers who clamour not for wage increase as the state is always the first to pay its workers, but for the “sustenance of a tradition graft and complacency.”
While the local government staff are up in arms against official moves subjecting them to “staff audit” meant to ascertain actual figures of genuine staff, the teachers are opposing the Teachers Development Needs Assessment which they claim is meant to ultimately lead to retrenchment.
Although the staff audit is about being completed, getting the teachers to write the TDNA has not been successful, as just about 100 teachers three weeks ago, wrote a test in which over 16,000 were the target, creating a stalemate in which government’s well justified stance appears to be matched by teachers’ unbelieving stubbornness.
What is the direction of governance in the New Year? According to Afuye, attention would be better directed at the provision of water and electricity, while ensuring that none of the ongoing projects suffers negligence.

What next?

The commissioner said: “The coming year will witness water, water and water everywhere as obsolete equipment in Ureje Dam has already been completely replaced and the water distribution points in Okela and other areas have been fixed. I want to say that government has also finalised arrangements for an Independent Power Plant (IPP) project which will focus mainly Ado-Ekiti as an industrial/commercial hub of the state.”
The commissioner added: “Let me assure our people that at the end of Fayemi’s first term no project however massive in terms of size and cost will be an abandoned project. It is to the eternal credit of the governor that so many efforts have been sustained on all fronts, at high pitch standards in every section and segment of the state.
“It could be contended that the administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi which gained ascendancy exactly October 16, 2010, has done its bit to justify confidence as expressed by people through popular but now quaint ‘shouts of Fayemi we want’ in the days of struggle. His performance has won him the Governor of the Year Award by Leadership Newspapers, affirming Ekiti as the best governed state in the country.”

The October 20 governorship election in Ondo State has raised serious concern about the future of democracy in Nigeria, Civil Society Coalition for Mandate Protection (CSC-MAP), a non-governmental body, has said.

According to the CSC-MAP which monitored the election in the 18 local government areas, the electoral process was marred with monetary inducement of voters, late arrival of voting materials, outright lack of opportunities to vote in some areas, especially in Idanre area, and violence at some polling booths.

The group listed the riverside communities as some of the areas where voting materials did not arrive until 2pm, at a time many of the voters had been disillusioned and had retreated back home.

“The last election raises serious concern about the entire democratic process in Nigeria. We saw people being given money; several people voted because they felt their immediate pecks and privileges were met while the turn-out was not remarkable,” the group’s General Secretary, Sulaiman Olubunmi Sanusi and Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Inuejalawo jointly stated at a conference held in Akure, the state capital.

Sanusi claimed that out of the 1.5 million registered voters, less than 700,000 people voted. According to him, this situation was influenced by many factors, some of which are the militarization of the state with the presence of soldiers on the streets; the possibility that fake voters were registered; the feeling by some of the voters that the election was predetermined due to perceived federal government’s influence and, possibly, the loss of confidence by the electorate in the entire democratic process.

The group therefore urged the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to probe alleged instances of ballot stuffing by law enforcement agents during the election.

“It is a sad thing that Nigerians still need to be guided to vote at gun point and the election won at gun point. Nigeria is perhaps the only democratic country in West Africa where, on Election Day, voters were watched and intimidated from the nozzles of armed soldiers’ AK-47 rifles. Nigeria must raise the electoral bar to a level where people can vote out of their own conviction but not in a situation where voters were goaded by bullets. This situation fuels voters’ amnesia and it is a far cry from the basic elements of democratic principle. It is a system that puts the incumbent at a great disadvantage and to the detriment of the people,” Sanusi added.

The group, CSC-MAP, which has 65 affiliate members, believes that the outcome of the Ondo election does not in any way reflect true democratic practices that meet global standards.

Akinrogun Tunde Odanye, PDP chieftain, who contested for the governorship seat of the state of Osun in 2007 under Alliance for Democracy, tells Sam Egburonu in this interview that he is still longing for the progressive politics of AD. Excerpts

Nigeria is 52 this year and most citizens feel the country is still like a baby? Why do we have to face this fate?

I will say yes, we are a toddler nation at 52. But I will like to point out that for a change, we are gradually getting our acts together. We all seem to agree today that a lot has to be done. I mean that both the ruler and the people seem to be on the same page today as to what needs to be done. I think the only problem is the sincerity of those who are ruling and of course some of the people who are being ruled, who are beneficiaries of the corrupt system and so want it to continue. But I think we will get there. You see, unlike in the military days, when the rulers either had cotton wool in their ears and were totally deaf to what the ruled were saying or just could not be bothered, in this democratic setting, everybody knows you have to deliver because it is your performance for a second term, and assuming that is not the greatest motivation for you, assuming your second term is guaranteed, whether you delivered or you did not; there is also the fact that when you leave that office, there are a number of people who will ask you questions on why you failed to deliver.

Are you implying that the leaders we have today are listening to the governed?

None of them can pretend not to hear what the people are saying. Is just that some care, some do not care very much and some may not care at all. But you can hear them defending themselves, trying to justify their actions and promising to do more. We are all witnesses to what is happening today. We have a situation that when you criticize the president, you get a reply. I will give you an example which I find very ‘emulatory’ of Mr. president. Somebody in the social media carried the rumour that it was the president’s wife that was responsible for the Dana plane crash; that she was visiting and air space was closed, etc. Of course, that allegation was baseless. In times not too long ago, that fellow would have been locked up and the keys thrown away. But what do we have now? We have a president and his wife, who replied, saying this was where I was oo! In otherwise, we have a president and his wife who had to provide an alibi, which was totally unassailable and simply responding that the allegation has no truth, no foundation. You criticised the president on the removal of petrol subsidy. Some of us believe it is necessary. We know that those subsidies were entering into private pockets. We are not the beneficiaries of the subsidy. But the president harkened to the cries of the people. The most recent was the issue of the N5,000 note. He listened to your criticisms.

So, I think he is listening. Change could be slow a times. Its like an Elephant’s turning. When damage has been done for quite a long period of time, rectifying it may not be very easy. It is the same thing they are harassing Barack Obama in America. They have forgotten he has been there for only four years. Damage has been done about eight years before he got there. You know it’s easier to destroy than to build.

I think what has led to the greatest reverse we had was the time the late President Yar’Adua was ill and it was like nobody was really in charge. It was his ministers and some caucus of his close friends, who were directing affairs not necessarily to the best benefit of the citizens but to their benefits. That was when we heard that there were millions of dollars flying around in hard currency amongst ministers because they had no boss, more or less.

The impression that the president is slow, which led to allegations that he was rudderless and such like, has not been helped by government’s handling of Boko Haram and other security challenges. Do you agree that he is confused?

I am not saying this as a politician, I am responding now as a lawyer and as a regular citizen, based on my discussions with people across different political strata; I know that every enlightened person understands that many of this problems cannot go away over night. America and Israel, which are supposed to be the most security conscious countries in the world still have same experience every now and then. They don’t blame it on their president. 9/11 was never blamed on the President of America. In the UK, they are still arresting fundamentalists, both Islamists, the skin heads, etc. I ask, are we intentionally mischievous or what? Don’t we read newspapers everyday: bomb blast in Spain, bomb blast in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Kenya, everywhere. Are all their presidents rudderless? Its like saying anywhere there is crime, it’s Mr. president’s fault.

One of the reasons already adduced for this state of insecurity is poverty of the common citizen, and this is not occasioned only by the president. The state governments and local authorities have contributed in this unfortunate reality and so, when these people begin to react, it is not directed at the president alone but also at their state and local leaders.

But because we are used to the military mentality of ‘with immediate effect,’ we want everything to be done with immediate effect. When Obasanjo came, it was by immediate effect but we see that most of the decisions he took that way had to be reversed.

Now, we have a president who takes his time to come to a decision because he doesn’t want to reverse it; a president who discusses the actions he want to take. As a result, most of the actions President Jonathan has taken have passed the test of time. That is, a good number of his actions did not need to be reversed.

Many also have this bad impression of President Jonathan because he is a meek person with a humble mien. You know that in Nigeria, we tend to respect people that throw their weight around. We don’t easily respect humble people but the truth is that any enlightened mind knows that arrogance is usually informed by ignorance. The most arrogant people in this world are usually the most ignorant. To some of them, it is a defence mechanism. The more informed you are, the more you will realise that you are just a lucky person, that but for the grace of God, you could have been the next mendicant on the street. We have a president who has a PhD, who is sufficiently informed and exposed.

Not long ago, you were quoted as saying that by the time some judges are tried and jailed, Nigeria’s anti-corruption crusade will become more successful. As a lawyer, are you saying the judiciary is to blame for the state of corruption in the country?

We like pretending or deceiving ourselves. We say we are fighting corruption, how many high profile people have been convicted and sent to jail.

But how do they tackle corruption abroad, they make sure they go after the biggest crooks, so that the small ones will be too scared to even think of it. You know when Abacha locked up those leaders Nigerians thought were untouchables, like Olusegun Obasanjo, MKO Abiola, Shehu Yar’Adua, etc; you have to be very very bold to talk after that.

What I am saying is that corrupt judges should also be sent to jail.

As at 1999, honest, decent people could win elections in this country. I remember Chief Bisi Akande, who was governor of Osun state then, he used to say proudly that he did not think he spent more than N50,000 in his governorship campaigns. That election cost a total of about N3million. Now, you will need a couple of billions of naira to prosecute governorship elections in almost any state in Nigeria.

This high cost of prosecuting electoral campaigns, is it a confirmation that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is also corrupt?

This current INEC is not corrupt. What I am saying is that this Professor Attahiru Jega-led INEC is good, is delivering and even if it is somehow corrupt, it is at a level you can describe in Nigerian context as moderate. The results we have been getting since the 2011 elections have been results we all believe are authentic. In fact, this INEC is the shining light in this dark and corrupt era.

Originally, we know you as an active AD chieftain. Now, you are in PDP. Do you sometimes feel uncomfortable in your current political family?

The truth of the matter is, I still look back longingly at the politics of AD. In those days, when we had AD, PDP, APP, politics was still practiced the way it should. That is no longer the case. But in PDP, one is still free to ventilate his ideas.

But you once admitted that PDP is not perfect. Are you denying that fact now?

The major difference between PDP and the other parties is that PDP realises it is not perfect. Others seem to say they are perfect.

Twice or thrice, you contested for the governorship seat in your state, Osun, are you preparing for another attempt in 2015?

I don’t know yet. One is that things seem to be getting worse. Before, the South-West was largely insulated from money politics. Now, things have gone haywire.