Godfatherism a major impediment to democracy in Nigeria, says ADP candidate

Segun Adewale, the Action Democratic Party (ADP) gubernatorial candidate in the July 14 election, has described godfatherism as a major impediment to the development of democracy in Nigeria.

The Campaign Manager for the ADP candidate, Mr Tokunbo Ajayi, said this while leading party members and loyalists on a house-to-house campaign in Ado-Ekiti on Monday.

Ajayi, who is also the party’s youth leader, represented the candidate on the campaign.

He described godfatherism as a major time bomb which, if not stopped, could derail the nation’s democracy.

The campaign team identified other problems facing democracy in the country as criminal politics, violence and corruption.

Ajayi said that the party would not engage touts, beg or bribe anybody to win the polls.

“Action Democratic Party is not ready to partake in such, in order to produce governor; most of the politicians are alleged to be financiers of cult groups, maintain and sustain them.

“These factors are closely entwined with the rampant political violence in the state in recent time; public revenues are not only stolen and misused, but often paid for the services and weapons behind political violence.

“Because violence and corruption make political competition a very expensive endeavor, many politicians are far more accountable to powerful and violent political godfathers that sponsor them than they are to their constituents.

“Political godfathers in Ekiti are not mere financiers of political campaigns, but are individuals whose power stems not just from wealth, but from their ability to deploy violence and corruption to manipulate national, state and local political systems in support of the politicians they sponsor.

“In return, they demand a substantial degree of control over the government they help bring into power in order to shape government policy and also to exact direct financial returns in the form of government resources stolen by their protégés or lucrative government contracts awarded to them as further opportunities for graft.

‘If ADP produces the next governor in this state, Ekiti will be the first state to enact and aggressively implement the Freedom of Information Bill, which would provide Nigerians and Ekiti people a tool to compel government institutions to make public important information, including basic data concerning expenditures and government policies.”

He said that the party would propose an amendment to the Nigerian Constitution that would rescind immunity from all criminal prosecution currently enjoyed by sitting governors. (NAN)