PATRON CLIENT POLITICS AND GRASSROOT DEVELOPMENT IN IBESIKPO ASUTAN LGA

Abstract

The twin issues of democracy and political parties which are the pivot of sustainable development have been of concern to many observers and Political thinkers even before the time of recorded philosophical writings. A political party could be said to be the tool that socializes the citizenry into a Political system; which is the system that transforms the various unwieldy societal thoughts, needs and inclinations into a meaningful whole. This process is supposed to emerge through discussions, disagreements and agreements that are not necessarily reached by force or dictatorial pressure. This research examines the effects of Patron-client politics and grassroots development in Ibesikpo Asutan L G A of Akwa Ibom State.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

Democracies all over the world operate political parties. The political parties enable the political system to function through the representatives of the people. Although the number of parties varies from one  nation to another, there seems to be a phenomenon of dominant parties in both developed and developing countries of the world. In the United States of America (USA), the Republicans and the Democrats are always in the lime light in sharing dominance. In Britain, it was the Labour Party (LP) and the Conservatives Party (CP) until the marriage between the Conservatives and the Liberals. In Nigeria, despite the high number of political parties, the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria has to deregister some of the parties in 2012 for lack of performance. Many still hold different assumptions of what a political party is and what it is meant to do in a political system. The most critical role of a political party is to form government and allocate scarce resources in order to provide development in a sustainable manner. But whether or not this goal is achieved in Nigeria by the political parties is yet another very critical and pivotal matter to interrogate by scholars and public opinion commentators. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the emergence of democratic transition in Eastern and Central Europe, political parties or systems become more prominent as one of the viable options through which the earlier balkanized Europe could be transformed from military dictatorships to civilian governments and for Africa, from the Apartheid regimes to embracing democracies. The constitutional provision of ruler-ship in Nigeria is the Party system and the constitution has made the formation of political parties wholly a private investment. All candidates must depend upon political parties for canvassing for, votes from the electorate. This is in contrast to political systems with provision for independent candidature. The formation of political parties in democracies is capital intensive in nature, hence it involves the rich and wealthy individuals who can fund and maintain them. In the third world, these individuals make up the clique known as the “Godfathers” whose patronage and interests are required for the smooth running of the party system.  Elections in present-day Nigeria, where elections are habitually subverted by political parties and politicians through the illegal use of money, physical force and governmental patronage deployed through the intermediary of “perverse brokers” (Olarinmoye, 2007: 33) known as godfathers or patrons who can be seen as the direct lineal descendants of the Roman “interprets” or “go-between”. Furthermore, it establishes the intimate links between the subversion of the electoral process or electoral fraud and poor governance of political society as electoral fraud facilitated by godfathers or go-betweens deny voters control of a “valuable political resource; the giving or withholding of their votes” (Scott, 1973) which is at the core of indirect or representative democracy, where people “participate in taking and implementing decisions on the common affairs of the community indirectly, through their representatives, elected or selected for that purpose” (Agbaje, 2005). The above means, ipso facto, that subversion of the electoral process leads to the installation of individuals who pursue private interests and desires rather than general interest or public good, hence the bad governance, poverty and economic underdevelopment that have characterized Nigeria public space since independence and especially since 1999 with the inauguration of the 4th Republic. It follows, logically, that an understanding of dynamics of electoral corruption, its forms and processes is essential to current quests for good governance and democratic consolidation in Nigerian and Africa as a whole.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Patron client politics, godfatherism favoritism or nepotism in the Nigerian political environment has exacted it influence on the political structure since the dawning of the 4^th republic. This menace has been characterized by poor representation selection instead of election and general election malpractice. It is on this note that the researcher intends to investigate the effect of patron client’s politics and grassroots development in Ibesikpo Asutan LGA.

• DEFINITION OF TERMS

Patron

The word “patron” derives from the Latin: ‘patronus’ (“patron”), one who gives benefits to his clients (see Patronage in ancient Rome). In some countries the term is used to describe political patronage, which is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their electoral support.

Politics

Politics is the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance organized control over a human community, particularly a state. Furthermore, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a given community (this is usually a hierarchically organized population) as well as the interrelationship(s) between communities

Grass root

A grassroots movement  is one which uses the people in a given district as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations utilize collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures. Grassroots movements, using self-organization, encourages community members to contribute by taking responsibility and action for their community. Grassroots movements utilize a variety of strategies from fundraising and registering voters, to simply encouraging political conversation. Goals of specific movements vary, but the movements are consistent in their focus on increasing mass participation in politics

Nepotism

Nepotism is biased favoritism granted to relatives in various fields, including business, politics, entertainment, sports, religion and other activities

• OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to evaluate patron client politics and grassroots development in Ibesikpo Asutan LGA. But for the successful completion of the study, the researcher put forward the following objectives:

1. To investigate the effect of patron client politics and grassroots developments
2. To ascertain the relationship between patron politics and effective representation

• To ascertain the role of political parties in patron clients politics

1. To ascertain the impact of patron client politics in grassroots developments.
   • SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is perceived that at the completion of the study, the findings will be beneficial to the political actors and players to ensure that their party has a grassroots fan based as the findings emphasis on grassroots participation in politics, the study will also be of great importance to political patron or godfathers on their choice of adoption of Godson or daughter, as their choice may be contrary to that of the party. The study will also be beneficial to researcher who intend to carry out study on similar topic. Finally the study will be of great benefit to academia as the findings will add to the pool of knowledge.

• RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

For the successful completion of the study, the following hypotheses were formulated:

H₀: patron client politics does not have any effects on grassroots development in Ibesikpo Asutan

H₁: patron client politics have effects on grassroots developments in Ibesikpo Asutan

H₀: there is no significant relationship between patron politics and effective representation.

H₂: there is a significant relationship between patron politics and effective representation.Reference

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