Godfatherism and the future of Nigerian democracy

Abstract

The study explores the relationship between godfathers and godsons with a particular attention to its influence on the
development of Nigeria’s politics, and seeming demise of resourceful governance in the country. The study adopts
unstructured interview to elicit the perception of actors’ involved and political elites, relying on qualitative and content
analyses of data. The study found that there was a shift in the modus operandi of post independence godfatherism,
and what obtains in contemporary Nigeria was violence-inspired godfatherism, which successfully replaced politics of
welfare by politics of warfare in the affected areas. This acted as impediments to sustainable democratization process
in Nigeria. The study concludes by recognizing the inevitability of godfathers in politics but there was the need for
proper management of godfather/godson relationship.