The problem militating against democratic stability, social-economic and political development as well as legitimacy in Nigeria is corruption. The study explores the relationship between godfathers and godsons with particular emphasis, attention and influence on the social-political and economic development of Nigeria, with regard to Anambra and Kwara states.
The study found that there was a shift in the way of doing politics in post independence godfathers system and what is now. Virtually all the Nigerian leaders who have come in as doctors have left office as patients. This acted as an impediment to sustainable democratization in Nigeria. Though godfather in politics is inevitable, there was the need, for a true and patriotic godfather/godson relationship and not an animalistic form of political investment syndrome.
An attempt to understand the tragedy of developmental challenges to democracy in less developed countries, especially Nigeria, must come with stupendous wastage of scarce resources in the name of settlement of godfathers and their accolades.
The
word „godfather‟ is
symbolical in Christendom and by that very fact in the Christian rites of passage. A godfather and two godmothers are needed as guarantors in the liturgy of baptism in the church
with this, one can pass to the next level of full “confirmation” as a Christian which bestows
the right of Holy Communion on such adherent in the Episcopal Church (Anglican, Catholic). These godfathers and godmothers or guarantors as they may be called, must be man and women of integrity and impeccable character both within the immediate environment and the church.
They must be men and women of substance, proactive in church work and observers of the great commission. Those were the days, long ago! With time, the concept of godfatherism took a wider and mundane dimension which is associated with moral bankruptcy and corruption. Godfatherism became popular in Nigerian political space in the 1960s and early post-independence leaders became godfathers (mamah, 2007). The visible handiwork of godfathers at the return to civil rule in 1979 was thwarted by the military regimes that characterized the 1980s.
While Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the likes rely pivotally on the wishes of the people and the dynamic change in their demand for independence as early as 1958, the Northern leaders did not see any justification for such a
proposal. At the end, the colonial masters acting as godfathers ensured that “power did not go to the best candidate”
The principle of godfatherism in politics was displayed in the three regions of west, east and north in the first republic which led to the western Nigeria crisis of 1962. This was the beginning of the end of that republic which would go into record as the best years of Nigeria politics. Corruption was not a regular diet as it is today. In contemporary times, when democracy has turned out to be a most cherished political bride that has attained near global acclaim and admiration due to her believe in equity and justice, emphasis on popular will which in itself is a source of legitimacy to governments, it purports to uphold the
rule of law as well as guarantee the preservation of human and people‟s rights, what has happen to
democracy in Nigeria, which instead of being a problem solver became a problem itself.
Why is corruption devoid of solution in our dear country? Why is everyone interested in sharing the national cake with their teeth instead of baking and preserving it? These and many more questions are what we are trying to find answers to in the course of this script. Anambra and kwara states are worth mentioning due to their recent events and shackles of godfathers who are bent on enslavement of the two states.
