Godfatherism in Nigeria Politics -By Ahmad Muhammad Sani

Godfatherism in Nigeria Politics is a pervasive system where powerful individuals (godfathers) use wealth, influence and network to control political outcomes, sponsor candidates (godson/godchildren), and demand loyalty, often prioritizing personal/group interest over public good, leading to corruption, weak institutions, political violence and hindering true democratic development. While some see it as patronage necessary to navigate expensive politics, research highlights it’s negative impact, including stifling competition, eroding accountability and creating political instability, though solutions focus on civic education, electoral reforms and empowering citizens to demand better governance.

Mbarama (2004) aptly asserts that godfatherism invasion of the polity is for the nomination of political candidate for the purpose of selfish gratification. It is a political slave trade or political sponsorship based on political manipulation with several evil agenda.

According to John (2006), godfatherism has become a scary phenomenon in Nigeria Politics. This is because; godfathers have sustained a reputation for deploying their wealth to secure party nomination for candidates of their choice, sponsor their elections including manipulating the electoral process of their selfish interest.
The causes of politics of godfatherism in Nigeria is not far-fetched. Former governor Chimaroke Nnamani, 2003 cited in Adeoye affirm that godfather is an impervious guardian figure who provided the lifeline and direction of godson, perceived to live a life of total submission, subservience and protection of the oracular personality allocated in the large, material frame of opulence, affluence and decisiveness, that is, ruthless. Ahmad and Ali posit that there are numerous factors that led to the politics of godfatherism in Nigeria, among which are the power of incumbency, influence, political thugs, money politics, lack of political awareness, selfishness and lack of exposure.

Godfatherism and it’s Effect in Nigeria’s Democracy. The resurgence of godfatherism in Nigeria posed a serious obstacle to political dividends socioeconomic growth, good governance and stability. One of the most alarming and destructive effects of godfatherism in Nigeria Politics is the campaigning for a genuinely democratic and transparent political mechanism in which voters are expected to openly nominate someone who will rule them and serve their interests. The way forward. There is the urgent need for strict adherence to the rule of law in Nigeria. This should be done through adequate application of the tenets of the rule of law in which every citizens of the country is equal before the law. The electoral laws in Nigeria should be reformed to limit the funding of political parties and their candidates by individuals and corporate organizations. This is the way forward in abrogating the phenomenon of godfatherism. Godfathers in Nigeria operate easily in the current praxis of unlimited individual and corporate funding of electoral activities. This should be done through meticulous supervision of party and electioneering finances in the country.

The government should revitalize Nigeria’s weak economy in order to create employment for youths, who carry out the evil biddings of godfathers and their godsons for mere peanut. This should be implemented through sundry employment programmes as the NDE among others. The government should establish and strengthen sovereign institutions free from external control, to act as watchdog to public office holders.

This will help to ensure transparency and accountability, and concomitantly minimize the abuse of power. For example, the activities of EFCC (Economic Financial Crimes Commission) and ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Crime) should be stepped up in this regard.

Implications of the politics of godfatherism on governance

In Nigeria’s fourth republic, the emergence of godfatherism posed great threat not only to good governance but also the socio-economic stability of democratic governance. Perhaps one of the most disturbing and damaging influence of godfatherism in Nigeria’s fourth republic was in domain of making nonsense of a truly free, fair and credible electoral process in which the electorates by right are expected to freely elect people of their choice into public office to represent their interests. Indeed, the privilege of electing people of their choice into public office was denied given the situation in which godfathers foisted candidates of their preference on the generality of the people. This is to say the least very inimical to the tenets of democratic rule. When public office holders would not be accountable to the people, who at any rate did not count in their elections into public office. Invariably, the loyalty of such public office holders would be tilted towards their godfathers and this in itself negates one of the critical attributes of democracy which is responsive and transparent government. This scenario is also inimical to good governance and political stability which are predicated on the rule of law, due process, accountability and transparency in the management of public business.

The emergence of godfatherism has also robbed the citizens of the privilege of enjoying the dividends of democratic governance in the sense that the- would be government became reluctant to initiate and implement policies that would advance the wellbeing of the generality of the citizens. This was as a result of the fact that godfatherism in Nigeria was basically predatory in nature. The primary motive of venturing into politics was borne out of the need to acquire money from the coffers of government to which their godsons held sway. Therefore the lean financial resource accruable to the state from the federation account which was meant for the improvement of living standard of the citizens was paramount interest to them. In instances where the godsons upon reflection refused to settle their godfathers as agreed upon before securing public office, hell was let loose. The experiences recorded in Enugu State in 1999 between Jim Nwobodo and Governor Chimaroke Nnamani. Also in 2007 between Governor Sullivan Chime and Chimaroke Nnamani were awful.

The introduction of money politics into Nigeria political system gave birth to the politics of godfatherism. Godfathers defend their adopted godsons when they run into problems, with either law enforcement agents or members of other gangs. Godfatherism sometimes manifests itself in the politics of developed countries of the world and Latin American countries in terms of some criminal underworld groups sponsoring politician during elections in return for the protection of contracts. This kind of situation is euphemistically referred to as ‘party machine’ politics in the American political science literature (30). Every society has a set of individuals who command respect among the people. Such individuals might not be interest in electoral contests, but somehow determines who represents the people. The acts of forceful compliance and loyalty by threat and blackmail is not involved, rather, the public accords the godson full respect and support. Godfatherism has no doubt stunted political development in Nigeria. It held governance at ransom; yet, we could not neglect the inevitability of godfathers in politics (4). Godfather-godson relationship has become a threat to Nigeria’s nascent democracy. According to Adedeji (31), democracy is a means to an end: the need is greater happiness for the people. However, in Nigeria today, very few political elites, godfathers and their thugs enjoyed the dividends of democracy, while the downwardly mobile masses was kept gaping and scrambling for survival in the midst of enormous Nigeria’s wealth (4).

In Nigeria today, patron-client relationship take the primacy over the formal aspects of politics such as the rule of law, well-functioning political parties and a credible electoral system. Corroborating this view, Soyinka (32) argued that greatest disservice former president Olusegun Obasanjo has done to the nation was to have promoted the cult of alities, its naked violence and its corruption. Today, the Nigerian political parties neither seeks to win election nor form government but is used as platforms for the pursuit of narrow pecuniary interest of the party leadership (the godfathers). It is also imperative to accentuate that political party’s manifest poor articulative and aggregative capacity, which has snowballed into cross carpeting by politicians or the formation of new political parties. Thus, a misguided proliferation of political parties has been instrumentalized by the dominant political party today to consolidate its hold on power. There is high tendency for the emergence of patron-client politics in an elitist democracy where the society is hierarchical patterned like a pyramid. Powerful political elites stand at the top and wield power in their different domain. The power flows from godfathers and they determine the power structure below them. This made politics to become riotous, difficult to manage with anarchic patterns of operations and flagrant abuse of power by both the godfathers and political parties. Godfathers were in charge of political parties and eventually constituted the monopolists that determine the outcomes of government (4). The godfathers have successfully taken over the Nigerian political institutions, while the roles of electorates were fast diminishing. Patron-client relationship weakens political institutions, reduces economic growth and development and serves as impediments to political advancement. Godfatherism is therefore, a menace to democracy like a tick on a cow or the weed to the crops, like HIV virus in a bloodstream with a weak defense mechanism; it kills our hard-earned democracy and militates against its progress (33-34). This discussion is in line with the view of elite theory, which believes in power control within a certain group of people. In view of this, candidates that are desperate for power pledge alliance to the godfathers for a guaranteed winning ticket and as a result, the citizens experienced despair instead of hope, tragic and untimely death instead of long life, dictatorship instead of rule of law, political selection instead of credible election, insecurity instead of security and illusion instead of expectation.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This paper has been able to reveal that politics of godfatherism is an impediment to Nigeria’s nascent democracy. It has gained prominence and assumed dominant feature of electoral politics and governance in the country. Consequently, it encourages corruption, breeds acute unemployment, electoral malpractices, abject poverty and political instability.

The patron-client relationship modeled a great threat to not only good governance but also the socio-economic and political development and stability of democratic governance. One of the most disturbing and damaging influences of godfatherism in Nigeria’s fourth republic was in the domain of making nonsense of a truly free, fair and credible electoral process in which the electorates by right are expected to freely elect candidates of their choice into public office to represent their interests. To achieve their goals, our political elites and their mentors (godfathers) manipulate the constitutive and regulative instrument for credible electoral contest. Credible elections are necessary to stem the tide for political decay and renewal in the country. This is because in the view of the apologists of liberal democracy, once elections are gotten right, democracy is on its way to bring consolidation and in consequences enduring peace and security will be instituted in the country.

Thank you for considering my submission. I look forward for your feedback.
I sincerely thank you

Ahmad Muhammad Sani
09136939340
ahmadmuhammadsani6122@gmail.com