THE INFLUENCE OF GODFATHERISM IN NIGERIA POLITICS IN THE FOURTH REPUBLIC

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Godfathers are generally defined as men who have the power personally to determine both who gets nominated to contest elections and who wins elections in a state. Ibrahim (2003) regarded them as a huge challenge to democracy in the country. Although the godfathers themselves are strictly supportive of the practice.

According to Jubril (1999), Godgatherism is one word that opens narrow doors when it comes to deciding who gets what in the political scene. They make or mar potential candidates all over the country. In fact the concept of godfatherism is firmly establishing itself as a guiding principle in contemporary Nigeria politics.

“One thing in politics is that you must believe in it, I would not be in daddy’s place”, Reverend Jolly Njame, the governor of the northern JarabaState told Nigerians The Sun Newspaper.

Whether you like it or not, as a godfather, you will not be a governor you will not be a president, but you can make a governor, you can make a president Bahaja, (2003). Since the advent of the present democratic dispensation in May 29th 1999, Nigerians and the political class have come to terms with godfatherism in Nigeria political scene. Across the 36 states of the federation, almost all the elected governors in 1999, 2003, and 2007, have their godfathers who bankrolled their election members of the National Assembly, State Assembly, Local Government and Chairman are not left out in godfatherism. Without a godfather, an aspirant cannot win the party ticket let alone winning the general elections. What an aspirants needs to put into any elected offices of his desire is a powerful godfather who is a law unto himself God-fatherism started in Nigeria as far back as 1954 when politicians such as Late DrNnamdiAzikiwe, Late Chief ObafemiAwolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the TafawaBalewa, the Okpara to mention but a few, helds ways the political landscape of Nigeria. All what the aspirant needs then is to become one of the political sons of the big masquerades in the political climate of the godfather and he/she gets elected or appointed into any political office. That was the situation in the first and second republics in Nigeria. Godfathers were not political merchants but leaders of their people and their political parties until the collapse of the second republic. The third republic was short-lived and these was no visible presence of the godfather because of the military in the system.

The case off AnambraState since 1999 when the political godfather Sir EmekaOffor held the then governor, DrChinwokeMbadinugu to ransom that led to the non-payment of salaries and civil servants for more than one year. This resulted in the closure of schools in the state for one year as a result of teachers strike. In 2003 Dr Chris Ngige emerged the governor of the same state through the help of his Godfather. Chief Chris Uba who held the Governor to ransom for more than two years because the political son refused to play according to the agreement.

The whole spectacle that went in AnambraState in that period is still fresh in the memories. The case of Oyo State, where Late AlhajiLammidiAdedibu, the grandfather of amala politics became an emperor and a law unto himself made Nigeria politics and democracy a laughing stock, Kwara, Imo, Plateau, Kano, Enugu, Edo and many other states are not left out of the nefarious activities of godfathers.

Since (2007), election and handover in may 29, 2007 we have witnessed a game of chess and a war of supremacy between the political sons and their godfathers. But the subject matter here is AlhajiDahiruMangil an icon, a multibillionaire businessman and philanthropist to the core who saw Godfatherism in politics as an extension of his philanthropy organization. AlhajiDahiruBaraclMangal 51 years old in the chairman and managing Director Mangal Airtime, AFDIN Construction Company Nigeria Limited, manasawa Oil Mangaloil, Manasawa enterprises a clearing and forwarding outfit, a transport company and a security outfit with more than 200 staff success Digest.

In (1999), AlhajiUmar’MusaYar’adua as the Governor of Katsina State and his re-election in 2003. Tell magazine.

In 2007 election, AlhajiDahiruBaraumangal repeated that feet again and ensure that AlhajiUmaru Musa Yar’Adua took over from Chief OlusegunObasanjo as Nigeria next president, a feet he achieved and did not only stop at that, he ensured that the emergence of the present Governor of Kastina State, senators, House of Representative members, State Assembly members, Local government chairman and councilors; not only in his native Katsina State alone, his godfatherism, despite these achievement as a political godfather, AlhajiMangal does not want to be seen or heard. The cores Operating from the background. He does not like publicity. The Nation Newspaper.

Since (1999), AlhajiDahiruBarauMangal has not had any quarrel or misunderstanding with any of his political sons including the President AlhajiUmaru Musa YarAdua because he saw political godfatherism as a philanthropy and embraces it because he lives to give and help those in power and those who are in dire need of help. He never asked any of his political sons for returns neither has hs asked for “ten percent” of the security rotes nor asked to nominate a candidate for any political officers as in the case of other political godfathers who will ask for a share of the security rote of their political son, demand to be given commissioner for finance works and Attorney General of the State.

Characteristics of Godfathers

The characteristics of Godfathers are in kindness (+) and in Cash (-).

In Kindness:

They seek for both the godfathers and the community in general.

It is optional take all the creditor benefits.

In Cash:

They seek to receive in cash or check in returns and call the overwhelming shots for the favours.

It is equivalent to promoting a run robbery; where as it is a game to take all and so forth.

Indicators of godfathers model shows that if political godfathers can supply or seek in kindness. Such represent positive expression of godfatherism. On the contrary, godfatherism in cash is dubious naturally without helping the entire communities. Such represent negative expression of godfathers. At the same time, both in kindness and in cash, that’s the positive and negative respectively, cannot genuinely co-exist in same setting; however, the acceptable among the two is in kind which seek favour for all. Godfatherisms is business, entrepreneurs of godfathers especially the negative kinds are crippling Nigeria in the name of power and profit making. Put differently, it is untidy lucrative enterprise and is analogous supporting prostitutions or arm robbering. The product of godfathers is the godchild supports godfatherisms. Godfathers and the product having been trained to be godfathers now is ready for the market as proud owner of prospective product (godsons) Mutala (2004).

Politics of Godfathers (Kingmakers)

Kings or traditional Rulers, because of their belief that they are second to lesser gods whom they have to obey. Following that belief, we have some individuals or clans that have been designated as king-makers, whose family lineage has been traditionally endowed in choosing the kings after a king pass on. The kingmakers are believed to possess some power from the lesser gods that people could not challenge. In this present day Nigeria, we could consider such belief to be crude. But it worked in the community while peace and harmony exist.

Once the king has been selected, normally, the king has to go back and pay homage to the kingmakers, from that point on, the kingmakers must publicly and traditionally respect the king.

Following that cultural background, the political process in Nigeria is experiencing the cultural hiccup of the impact of godfatherism, kingmakers in the political process. We are familiar with the fact that in every move we make, we want to be successful.

This is synonymous with the politics in AnambraState during which Chief ChinwokeMbadinuju’s administration was literally ambushed by his estranged and self acclaimed godfather, Sir EmekaOffor. The crux is the latter’s insistence on a commending and influential role in the affairs of the government, a posture that was rebuffed by Governor Mbadinuju.

This later sparked off an unending row between the duo as Chief Offor, who had invested heavily in the successful election of the governor considered himself as a traitor reneged on their agreement reached as a pre-requisite for his sponsorship.

This ugly precedent which many observers ascribed to the highly monetized nature of the Nigerian political system, metamorphosed into a nauseating scenario on 10th July 2003.

The issue of godfather in Nigerian political process is becoming very interesting and it will take a while before we could get over it. Senator RashidiLaboya was impeached because of godfather or investor. Unfortunately, part of his sin was lack of respect for President OlusegunObasanjo while he was mediating in the conflict between Adedibu and Laboja. That is all in a be fair play in the system and adhering to the constitutional responsibilities of both parties involved. On the other hand, we need to show some respects somehow, somewhere even though you were right.

Nigerian’s Godfather’s

The concept of godfatherism is firmly and deeply establishing itself as a guiding principle in contemporary Nigeria politics. Indeed, following the general election earlier in AnambraState, Chris Uba – the acclaimed godfather of AnambraState in southeast Nigeria do dared a moment of intense self-satisfaction that “I am the greatest godfather in Nigeria because this is the first time an individual single-handedly put in position every politician in the state”. This Day Newspaper.

But why do godfathers act through surrogates, rather than take over position themselves? The fundamental problem is that the godfather is either not directly state able to voters or wants to protect himself from liability should be later demand that the surrogates engage in illegal activities.

The godfather would therefore prefer that someone else’s name be solid. In some states, godfathers bind their godsons by getting them to sign undated resignation letters and filming them making resignation announcement.

If the godson’s fail to deliver to their godfathers after being elected the godfathers are able to simply issue, the resignation letter and video-tape to remove them from office. In some cases, godsons carry the briefcases and become errand boys before their godfathers anoint them for political office.

Why should somebody agree to be a godson under such degrading condition. It may not be a difficult question to answer Godsons by all account are often people with almost unlimited greed and avarice. It is an expression that suggests mistrust and indeed distain for democracy.

It is useful to recollect that godfatherism in which king pins of the criminal underworld played a major political role, first featured in political science literature in relation to the U.S. city of Chicago in the pre-world war II era.

The heads of criminal gangs sponsored politicians kins: science literature under the euphemism of party machine politics.

The story of godfatherism in some part of contemporary Nigeria is a fundamental statement about the state of democracy in the country.

As long as ruling parties are ready to depend on godfathers for their electoral victories, the citizens and voters can do little but take a sack seat as on lookers.

Effect of Godfather’s Activities

Politically, a dangerous scenario is being added to the land scale democracy where the executive powers of duly elected governor is being undermined by so-called Godfathers in active connivance with the all powerfulAbuja. This, if not checked portends ominous sings or the nations hard earned but nascent democracy Guardian Newspaper.

Moreso, with a hardful of powerful individual ambushing the executive Governor of a state because of feeble and illegal agreement. The danger posed by this becomes even more worrisome when viewed from the various allegation of electoral malpractices alleged in the last 2003 general elections when what appeared like a military strategy was visited in some captured states especially in the southwestern part of the country. This phenomenon has further lent support to the yearnings of majority of Nigerians for a restructuring of the wobbled federalism - The Guardian Newspaper.

The blessing in disguise, in the vindication of the clamour for a sovereign national conference where the imbalance and age long industries that have been deep rooted in the fabrics of the Nigerian nation could be addressed.

Socio-Economic Cost

The socio-economic cost of the ongoing crisis in the state must be now be evident to the most passive observer – The Guardian Newspaper.

A state with an unstable government, where the governor is forced to place more emphasis on personal protection and security to the detriment of the state and public matters, where the chief executive is confronted with various distractions such as litigation threats to his life and office. The impact on the socio-economic advancement of the state and to the well being of its people is bound to suffer the ultimate result is retardation of development.

Government and Politics

Nigeria is a federal republic modeled after the UnitedState, with executive power exercised by the president and with overtones of the West Minster system model in the composition and management of the upper and lower houses of the bicameral legislature.

The current president of Nigeria is Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who was elected in 2007. The president presided as both Chief of State and Head of Government and is elected by popular vote a maximum of two to four years terms. The presidents power is checked by a senate and a house of representatives, which were combined in a bicameral body called the National Assembly. The senate is a 109-seat body with three members from each state and one from the capital regions of Abuja, members are elected by popular vote to four-year terms. The House contains 360 seats and the number of seats is determined by populations.

Ethnocentrisms, tribalism, sectarianism (especially religions) and prebendalism have played a visible role in Nigeria politics both prior and subsequent to independence in 1960, keen selective altruism has made its way into Nigeria politics and has spurned various attempts by tribalists to concentrate federal power to a particular region of their interest.

Nationalism has also led to active secessionist movement such as massors, nationalist movement such as OduaPeoples Congress, Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta and a civil war. Nigeria’s three largest ethnic groups have maintained historical pre-eminence in Nigeria politics, competition amonst these three groups, the Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo has frilled corruption and graft.

Due to the above issue, Nigeria’s current political parties are pan-national and irreligions in character. (Though this does not preclude the continuing pre-eminence of the dominant ethnicities).

The major political parties at present include the ruling People’s Democratic Party of Nigeria which maintains 223 seats in the House of Representative and 76 in the senate and is led by the current president, Umaru Musa Yar’adua. The opposition, All Nigeria Peoples Party under the leadership of MuhammaduBuhari has 96 House of Representative seats and 27 in the senate. There are also about twenty other minor opposition parties registered. The outgoing president, OlusegunObasanjo acknowledged fraud and other electoral “lapses” hint said the result reflected opinion polls. In a national television address, he added that if Nigerians did not like the victory of his hard picked successor they would have an opportunity to vote again in four years.

Like in many other African societies, prebendalism and extremely excessive corruption continue to constitute major challenges to Nigeria, as vote rigging and other means of coercion are practiced by all major parties in order to remain competitive. In 1983, it was adjudged by the policy institute at Kano that the 1959 and 1979 elections witnessed minimal rigging.

Conceptualizing the political godfatherism

Political godfatherism is one of the concepts that open doors when it comes to deciding who gets what in the political scene. Literarily godfathers seen in this country are men who have the power personally to determine both who gets nominated to contest elections and who wins an election. According to Audu (2006:8), godfathers are people of questionable wealth and influences who robbed political parties of their conventional and legitimate functions of presenting clear and coherent programmes on the basis of which the candidates presented by them are chosen by the voters. Ideally, government that is freely and fairly instituted by the people must be accountable to them as the source of it’s moral authority to rule. However, this is not possible with people of questionable wealth whose major concern is to recover the money spent for installing their candidates that are in power and therefore they share certain percentage of what comes to the government’s purse as their share of the economy. In an argument, Akpan (2004) said that godfathers are people that finances the political parties activities and individual electoral campaigns as actively throughout investment outlet to be recordedthrough frivolous and bloated government contracts by the appointment of cronies into choice public offices and other prebendal returns by the beneficiaries. In the same vein, Ibrahim (2006) qualifies godfathers as individuals who have the ability to deliver the desired outcome in an electoral contest. The emphasis here is that the politicians can only achieve it’s political offices with the backing of the so called godfathers. Indeed, the godsons become a mere surrogates and they remain totally subservient to their godfathers.

Not only that, Omotola (2007) is of the view that godfathers are those who have the security connections, extended local links, enormous financial weight and so on to plot and determine the success or otherwise of a power seeker at any level of a supposedly competitive politics.

In the final analysis, political godfatherism is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria instead it has a historical link to the era of the country’s first republic and it has been an ugly system that had disrupted democratization process in Nigeria.

The history of political godfatherism in Nigeria

The political godfather phenomenon is not a new thing in Nigeria, it started during the first republic when the foremost nationalists of the country influenced and controlled the political activities in Nigeria. However, there are lots of differences between the ideological godfatherism of the first republic and the crude form.

However, the advent of godfatherism in the Nigerian partisan politics dates back to the first republic when leaders of the three main political parties Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), Action Group (AG) and National Congress of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) carefully and meticulously cultivated godsons that they were convinced would advance the well being of the citizens. According to Gambo, Sir Ahmadu Bello of the NPC, Dr. NnamdiAzikwe of the NCNC and Chief ObafemiAwolowo of the AG were motivated to do so and not to use godsons as surrogates to promote parochial interests but to promote the developmental aspirations of the people.

Unlike the present political godfathers, the first generation godfathers were essentially benevolent and progressive because they did not abuse their status as godfathers by imposing frivolous demands on their godsons as it is the case today, they served as a huge reservoir of wisdom and experience to be consulted on the business of governance. Indeed, in a relative sense, the first republic political godfathers were drawn by community sense of interest in seeking to influence the electorates to vote for some candidates of their choice. It was enough satisfaction for them that they wielded tremendous influence in the society and this inevitably generated a groundswell of goodwill and reverence for them as their views on political issues were scarcely contested in their respective regions of the country.

Manifestation of politics of godfatherism in Nigeria

The godfathers do play important role in the democratic sustenance in Nigerian politicking since 1953 during the era of self government up to the fourth republic where uninterrupted democracy is experienced from 1999 to 2011. As indicated earlier, the power and influence of the godfather is enhanced by political connections at the highest tier of government. Where this is absent the individual can only operate as a mentor, benefactor or financier. Considering Kwara State from the year 1979, Dr. OlusolaSaraki operated as a financier or benefactor to AlhajiAdamuAttah the Governor of Kwara State, the relationship turned sour and he withdrew the support. DrOlusolaSaraki then shifted his support to Chief Cornelius Adebayo who was in the Unity Party of Nigeria although he (Saraki) remained in the National Party of Nigeria. Chief Cornelius Adebayo went ahead to win the gubernatorial election in Kwara state in 1983. DrOlusolaSaraki was clearly the deciding factor in the election as he had proved that whichever candidate he backed could win the election irrespective of party affiliation.

In furtherance to this, Dr. OlusolaSaraki who is a strongman in Kwara state politics also succeeded in taking over power from late Mohammed Lawal in 2003 to install his son Dr. AbubakarBukolaSaraki as Executive Governor of Kwara State from 2003 to 2011.However, at the tail of his son’s administration, Baba Saraki wanted GbemisolaSaraki to take over the power from her brother under the platform of PDP but to no avail, the situation could not help Baba Saraki to achieve this objective in the Kwara State ruling party and this led to the rift between father and son to part ways in the control of PDP. Therefore, Governor Saraki who has been in firm control of the PDP structure in Kwara while his father was forced to move to Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), a less popular political party, where GbemisolaSaraki gained the party gubernatorial flag bearer through politics of consensus among party members to enable her replace the brother as governor in year 2011.

Consequently, the legislative elections conducted on the 9th April, 2011 indicated that the PDP party leader in Kwara State has succeeded in taking over the political power from his father because his party, PDP claimed all Senatorial seats and all house of Reps without sharing the position with other parties and this served as emergence of new political godfather in Kwara state. In addition to this assertion, Dr. BukolaSaraki backed AlhajiFatai Ahmed as PDP gubernatorial candidate and urged other contestants from central and northern senatorial districts to step down for the contesters from southern senatorial district to pave way for his Godson at the primary level which eventually actualized his objective in installation of AlhajiFatai Ahmed.

Impact of godfatherism in Nigeria

Development is the process of economic, social, political and cultural change engineered in a given society by the effort of all stakeholders, both internal and external (communities, government, private sector, civil society etc) with a view to improving the conditions of life of the population. However, in the political realm, the impacts of godfatherism in Nigeria’s development are discussed below:

(i) Bad governance: Governance is regarded as a nebulous, ambiguous and vague word. Asogwa (2008:204), defined governance as “the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority to manage a nation’s affairs”. To him, it embraces all the methods good and bad that societies use to distribute power and manage public resources and problems. Bad governance is a type of governance which is not anchored on transparency, rule of law, due process, equity and justice. In Nigeria’s political development, governance is seen as ductless and unstable.

There is no gainsaying the fact that these godfathers and their godsons who profess to be representing the generality of the Nigerian people have in one way or the other manipulates selfishly the national resources. Hence, there is failure of government to provide the people with all the basic necessities which will enhance their standard of living.

(ii) Election crisis and political violence: Election is the process through which the people select those who will represent them in government. It is an open secret in Nigeria that the godfathers recruit the teeming unemployed youths and arm them with arms and ammunitions in order to carry out violence during elections, this is because they see it as a zero-sum game in which the winner takes it all. Throughout the history of Nigerian elections, free and fair election has constantly eluded the Nigeria’s politics, this is because of political violence orchestrated by the actors of godfatherism.

(iii) Subversion of democracy: The purpose of democracy is for free and fair participation of the masses in the political process. However, it has become accepted that godfatherism is a pathology to Nigeria‟s fledgling democracy. Public opinion does not countrather, the masses are governed whimsically and capriciously by the elites. An example is the subversion of democracy in Anambra State during the June 10th 2003 political imbroglio between Chris uba (the godfather) and Chris Ngige, (the then governor of Anambra State) in which the governor was kidnapped for some many days Onwumere (2007). Also, the crisis has merely been solved when the self declared “strongman of Ibadan politics”, Adedibu formally declared an unconventional war against his godson, Ladoja, governor of Oyo State. In support of the above claim by Fagge (1985) the phenomenon of godfatherism has been allowed to dominate the political scene in Nigeria and the electorate has been denied the right of the value of his vote in the market democracy. Hence, Nigeria’s democracy has been subverted for the values and preferences of the elites.

(iv) Political corruption: Corruption is a common term at the local, national and international level. To Asogwa (2008), political corruption is a symptom of something gone wrong in the management of the state. Politically, corruption entails the extortion and misuse of public goods for the utilization of a few. In Nigeria, it is incontestable that corruption has assumed a ludicrous dimension, the Nigerian situation aptly fits into what Myrdal described in Amuwo (2005) as the folklore of corruption.

Godfatherism has undoubtedly fuelled Nigeria’s corruption epidemic as politicians use every means available to them, legal or illegal to win political positions. Some western diplomats estimated that Nigeria lost a minimum average of $4 billion to $8 billion per year to corruption over the eight years of the Obasanjo administration (HRW, 2007). The point was made earlier that the relationship between the godfather and godson. The godfather assures the latter of electoral success and the godson uses his political power after wining the election to advance the social, economic and political influence of his mentor, this explains why politics in Nigeria is usually a contest of power between godfathers, they come out with all the tricks that could help to give their candidates victory. The tricks include multiple voting, exchanging official ballot boxes with unofficial ones already filled with voting papers, stealing electoral boxes, chasing voters away from constituencies where their candidates are likely to have few votes, killing and wounding political opponents, bribery etc. in the socio-economic realm, godfatherism impacts on development through various way as high crime rate and economic instability among others.

2.8 Factors enhancing godfatherism

Godfatherism survives in Nigeria due to long term of military rule and it’s various disorderliness, some of these factors are examined as follows:

(i) Illiteracy

This one of the major factor that is encouraging god-fatherism in Nigeria as a very high percentage of the citizens in are stark illiterate that can neither read nor write thereby capitalizing on their ignorance.

(ii)Poverty

Another canker worm that is ravaging the country is poverty thereby exposing the citizens to various kind of danger such as recruiting them as political thugs and foot soldiers by godfathers. This has led so many Nigerian youths to mortgaging their future for peanuts while the children of these so call godfathers are busy studying in state of the art institutions abroad.

(iii) Desperate seek for power

The zeal of getting to position of authority by all means is another factor that is making this phenomenon more popular. This makes our potential leaders to go into any agreement with their godfathers so as to clinch to power against the wish of the electorates.

(iv) Corruption

Corruption now appears to have become a permanent feature of the Nigerian polity. The Godfathers today are thriving on ill-gotten wealth acquired under questionable circumstances. Majority of them are fraudsters, drug barons, government contractors, and the likes. Due to high-level corruption in the country, the godfathers can bribe their way to any level. In fact they have all what it takes in their possession to have their way.

(v) Unemployment

The rate of unemployment of Nigerian graduates has also boost godfatherism as brains that suppose to be used for the development of the nation are being employed by politicians most of who are godfather to one political office holder or the other.