A
PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATION OF POLITICAL GODFATHERISM IN THE MODERN NIGERIAN
SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE
ORJIAKOR,
FRANCIS NNAMDI.
1.1 Background to the Study
The
concept of “Godfatherism” has its origin in Christianity. Among Christians,
Godparents are chosen as surrogates to help biological (or adopted) parents
raise a Christian child to become a God-fearing, law-abiding adult1.
Many have Godparents that help to shape their moral development and some, whose
parents died early, were raised by their Godparents. The relationship
between a Godfather and a Godchild is a sacred religious responsibility in
the Christian faith that is designed to guide and nurture the child
to succeed.
The
phenomenon of “godfatherism” is not a novel idea to politics. It has been with
it but its overblown negative tendencies and impact in Nigerian politics has
made it rather incongruous to the politics of the day2. According to
Azubuike, the phenomenon of godfatherism has become
a plague in Nigerian body polity.
Godfathers in politics are
generally defined as men who have the power personally to determine both who
gets nominated to contest elections and who wins in the election3. The godfathers are categories of people who possess
political powers are the ruling elite or the potential ruling elite and their
activities have been institutionalized to the point of subverting the
constitution for their selfish and economic gains. Subscribing to this
assertion, Gboyega observed that political godfathers are by design placed
above the laws of the land including the constitution4. They and
their thugs can carry arms without hindrance. They are entitled to Police
escorts and are immune to the crime of abduction, harassment and maiming. Most
of these thugs are recruited and trained for various political purposes such as
intimidation, harassment, violence, assassination, rigging etc. Some of them
are placed on regular salaries, with allowances accompanying their
remuneration. Similarly, some of them are employed as special advisers, special
assistants and personal assistants while those who do not fit in for the
aforementioned positions are made contractors to the government at Federal,
State or Local Government Areas.
Most
of these godfathers have used thugs to rig elections in 1999, 2003, 2007,
2011and 2015 general elections in
Nigeria, where most of the elections were monitored and conducted by political
thugs under the cover of INEC`s ad-hoc staff. In fact, the officers who were
officially assigned to do the job were overpowered by these political thugs
through pointing out gun to them, causing crisis and violence in the voting
venues. These thugs forced electorates to vote against their wishes. The party
representatives at the polling booths were threatened to compromise, and INEC
officials were forced to change election results in favour of a particular
party. Masses who want to participate in politics found it very difficult to
penetrate the electoral environment because of money politics. Therefore,
rather than being democratized, the Nigerian state has largely been militarized
by the struggle for power amongst the various contending groups in the polity.
However, Godfatherism in Nigerian politics has
become a social problem, which has permeated and ravaged the entire blood
stream of our political system negatively. The original meaning and idea of
Christian godfatherism has been greatly misused, abused and bastardized. The
existence of godfatherism in Nigerian politics has led to many problems. Some
of these problems according to Mbamara include; political killing, thuggery,
abduction, kidnapping etc. The activities of the godfathers in democracy has
crippled democratic choice, which subsequently shrinks democratic space5.
This often creates serious electoral problems as the godfathers employ all
illegal and obnoxious means to win elections. The sportsmanship variable, which
makes politics of election interesting, has been sacrificed on the altar of
anarchy, insecurity, chaos and violence which has become the order of the day6.
Elections
in Nigeria are therefore mere formality for the confirmation of a candidate
already selected by a godfather. Thus, the Nigerian electorate are deprived of
their right to elect their preferred leaders. The consequence of this, is the
emergence in the political scene of mediocres and stooges as leaders and
managers of state resources. This perhaps explains the erratic economic growth
rate the country has experienced in the last decade or so.
At
the party level, godfatherism has been at the forefront. Godfathers in various
political parties appoint and install presidents, governors, members of houses
of representatives, chairmen, counsellors and other functionaries in their
state. They determine how and what happens in their political parties.
According to Igwe, the major cause of defection of Obasanjo to APC (All
Progressive Alliance) was because his godson (Goodluck Jonathan) rejected his
ideas. He further noted that this also led to the lost in the 2015 general
elections. When godfathers leave their sons, the fate of the son (godson) is left
with uncertainty7.
Other
examples include in Oyo State, where the former PDP chairman Ahmadu Ali thought
that Ibadan was a garrison and that the then Governor Rashid Ladoja had no
choice but to take orders from Adedibu who was the commander of the garrison8.
Also the former President Olusegun Obasanjo pleaded with the people of Oyo
State to tolerate Adedibu’s excesses since the man was dry fish that could not
be bent anymore9. In other words, in spite of Adedibu’s well-known
disdain for the law and due process, Obasanjo thought Adedibu had to be
tolerated instead of called to order10. This kind of encouraging
attitude of PDP leaders has made the godfathers very daring and this has led to
a major political representation deficit for Nigerians.
In
the south eastern part of the country, the case is not different. In Enugu
state, governorship position is seen as a settlement position for a loyal son.
This is evidently shown Chimaroke –Sullivan ticket. The former being the
godfather and the other being the godson. Also Sullivan single headedly chose
Ugwuanyi while the voting during the primary election was a mere formality. In
Abia state, from Orji Uzor Kalu to Theodore Orji the case has been the same. In Ebonyi state, most of the public offices are being selected by the
Godfathers and not elected by the populace. This is evidently seen in 2011
general election which saw Elechi Martin return to office. Not only that this
was the handworks of godfathers in the state, the election was also
characterised by violence perpetuated by the thugs recruited by politicians to
rig the election. The areas hit by this godfatherism and thuggery include Ikwo,
Ezza, Onueke (Ezza South), Onicha among others. In these places, there were
records of snatching of ballot boxes used during the election by thugs.
This
concept of godfatherism has been with Nigerian political development to the
extent that both seem to be inseparable. It is based on this that the study
sought to evaluate philosophically the problems of Godfatherism in Nigerian
political system.
The problem of this work is how to establish the existence of
godfatherism in Nigerian democratic system of government. The causes of its
practice and also its ethical and political effects will also be highlighted.
Socrates/Plato, for instance, talked of virtue and kind which the
student/disciple/godson acquires by proximity with the
teacher/master/godfather. Kant’s
categorical imperative talks of moral maxims which can be adopted by everyone,
godfather and godson inclusive, without generality contradiction11.
Any keen observer of politics in Nigeria
and the performance of the various parties in the country during the general elections of 2009, 2011 and 2015
cannot but see the colossal influence of political godfathers. Experience has,
however, shown that the application of the concept of godfatherism has mostly
resulted to democratic failures and disasters. From denial of electing credible
candidates to imposition of mediocrity on the people to fill political and
appointive positions, and the whole experience has been that of pains, misery,
penury, squalor and damnation arising from poor performance and poor service
delivery among godsons.
Again, the whole scenario has been the promotion of
political bandwagon mentality and the empowerment of disempowerment. The point
that needs to be restated here above all is that, it is impossible to
understand the character of political godfatherism in the past and its
contemporary forms in the Nigeria’s fourth republic. It is against this
backdrop that the research questions below become sacrosanct; What are the
influence of godfatherism on political development in Nigeria?, Does godfatherism lead to poor
delivery of democratic dividends in Nigeria?, How does godfatherism influence
credible election in Nigeria
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this
work is to identify the causes and the basis of godfatherism in Nigerian
politics, the reason is that some Nigerians are becoming convinced that one
cannot get into political office without having a godfather. This belief scares
away many honest and dynamic young people from understanding political career
due to their fear that they will never succeed. The project will endeavour to
show weaknesses of godfatherism in Nigerian government so that the generality
of the people may avoid it.
This study looks at
the latest dispensation of civilian regime in Nigeria from 1999 general
election till date. The project will also look at the existence of godfatherism
and its effect in Nigerian civil society, it will also look into the views of
scholars with regard to the existence of godfatherism and finally the
researcher will also offer his own views.
The significance of any human endeavour is measured by
its relevance to solving human problems. This study is timely because it
provides measures to tackle the problems of godfatherism and thuggery in the
Nigerian body politics, which is still an on-going challenge for Nigeria as
well as other countries of the world. Similarly, this study presents facts
about the possible solutions to countering Godfatherism/political patronage and
thuggery.
The study will also help the government stakeholders
to realise the effect of godfatherism and thuggery in the socio-economic
development of the country. It will also provide useful materials for academics
who will engage in the study of politics in Nigeria.
Materials for this
work were collected from textbooks, journal articles, encyclopaedia,
dictionaries, Newspapers and the internet. The materials will be critically analysed
to expose the practice of godfatherism in Nigerian system of governance. Therefore the basic methodology employed in this work
is critical analysis.
Some
concepts require proper explanation to enhance our understanding of the theme
where necessary opinion of scholars will be cited to explain the terms. The researcher
will also give some fundamental definition of terms
1.7.1 Godfather:
A Godfather could refer to a person who sponsors or provides care of support
for a person or project. In the same token, it could be used to describe a
person directing an illegal and criminal organization.
1.7.2 Election:
Election is defined to mean a process of choosing a new leader for a country
where all eligible people cast a ballot to choose a leader or decide an issue.
The majority rules and the new leader is the one who has the most votes. It is
also defined as a formal process by which voters make their political choices
on public issues or candidates for public office.
1.7.3 Thuggery: Thuggery is defined to mean a violent behaviour in which people fight
and attack others. The word is thus clothed with criminal flavour and is
consequently associated with all negative synonyms such as violence, brutal
acts, hooliganism, gangsterism, assassins, criminal, delinquent, troublemakers.
Etc.
1.7.4 Political Thuggery: Political thuggry is act of thuggery in relation to
the political process. Thus political thuggery can be defined as any act of
intimidation, violence, hooliganism, brutality or gangsterism, whether leading
to death or not, calculated to pose a threat or scale political opponent or
perceived political opponents before, during or after elections and aimed at
achieving an undue political result or advantage. Political thuggery,
especially at elections may range from such acts as inciting or causing others
to act in a disorderly manner, being in illegal possession of or usage of
offensive weapon/s with the aim to scare or intimidate voters, snatching or
destruction of election materials, acts resulting into undue influence as by
compelling any person to vote or refrain from voting against his/her will,
ballot stuffing etc. This illegal
interference with the electoral process no doubt is electoral fraud, is
criminal and has severe consequences on democratic stability in general and national
security in particular.
1.7.5 Politics: is the practice and theory of influencing other
people on a global, civic or individual level. More narrowly, it refers to
achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a
human community, particularly a state.
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