Proceedings of the National Assembly of the Social Science Assembly of Nigeria, 2020
DOI: 10.36108/ssan/ConfPro/0202.03
Godfather Politics: Contextualising and Historicising Nigeria’s Fourth Republic Experience
Isa Mohammed
Department of Political Science and International Relations, Taraba State University, Jalingo
And
Emeka Daniel Oruonye
Department of Geography Taraba State University, Jalingo
Abstract
Godfather politics is a political reality in Nigeria’s political culture since the First Republic in the 1960s. The emergence and transformation of godfatherism in the form of leadership recruitment and progressive mentorship politics of the First Republic have degenerated into money and violent politics in Nigeria’s political development. Godfatherism has a sociological origin in Nigerian politics which has its cultural roots among many Nigerian peoples’ history. In Hausa society, it is called “Maigida” loosely translated as landlord or head of household, while in Yoruba “Baba kekere” is referred to as the small father and in Igbo “Nnam-ukwu” means my master. In Nigeria’s fourth republic the manifestation of godfather politics brought about the criminalization, monetization, and lack of democratic consolidation in the political process. There two types of progressives’ political godfathers and political entrepreneurs’ godfathers. This study relies on secondary sources of data and the data collected is analysed descriptively. The major findings indicate that that godfather politics has denied good citizens the right to political participation through the institutionalization of political violence and money politics. The negative impacts of godfather politics are responsible for leadership failure and development challenges in Nigeria as a result of a bad and incompetent political leadership recruitment agenda. The theoretical framework adopted in the study is the elite theory and patron-client model to explain the use of power, money, loyalty, and reward in the political system. The study recommends the need for Nigerians to practice politics of ideology, ensure strong internal party democracy in political parties, regulate the use of money in politics and develop a credible leadership recruitment process.
Keywords: Godfather politics, Democracy, Money politics, Fourth Republic, Nigeria.