GOD FATHERISM AND POLITICAL PATRONAGE IN NIGERIA: A THEORETICAL OVERVIEW
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Date
2017
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Political Science Review.
Abstract
The form of political system in Nigeria in the early post-colonial period was characterized by a
clientelistic structure whose top echelon was occupied by the new elites who captured the
economic and political powers of the Nigerian state immediately after independence. They were
patron occupying state offices as “pre-bends”. They became the “gate-keeper”; determines the
development initiative to be followed and employed and benefactors of privileges. Studies of
Godfathering and political patronage in Nigeria have not adequately addressed how these
patronage has remained an important aspect of the political and economic powers of the state.
This study, therefore, examined God fatherism and political patronage in Nigeria: a theoretical
overview. A synthesis of elite, coalition, party system and meritocratic theories provided the
conceptual framework. The design was exploratory and the study was descriptive in nature,
combining both secondary data from books and the internet. Modern political institutions
controlled by elites acquired power through the people. This development places political elites
in a position to bestow privilege and concessions as they deemed fit. Hence, this engender the
creation of a clientelistic structure with political elites as patrons and the vast majority of
population as clients willing to yield their loyalty to patrons for the satisfaction of valued
resources. Patrons who, due to their influence on the state apparatus, control both political and
economic powers therefore, more often than not control the direction development takes in these
areas. The resultant inequality therefore, produces a class of elites who control the economic
and political powers of the state and another class of masses who yield their loyalty to the elites
in order to secure access to state surpluses to be delivered as “good” or compensation for
loyalty. Since access to valued resources is assured through the clientelistic structure, the
emergent social relationships may have implication for Nigeria‟s development both in the rural
and urban areas.
Key word: Political patronage, Clientelism, Democracy, Godfathering, Democratic
Governance
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Citation
Political patronage, Clientelism, Democracy, Godfathering, Democratic Governance