(Criminal Politics Violence, “Godfatherism” and Corruption).
Ekiti State Action Democratic Party has continue to reiterate its ambition to produce the next governor of the state.
The Party Youth Leader and Campaigns Manager to Otunba Segun Adewale Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi was addressing the stakeholders at Ado Ekiti his home town during their house to house campaign that the party will never hire any touts or beg anybody through bribery and corruption in order to produce the next Ekiti State governor.
He stated that their candidate Otunba Segun Adewale will also not put his house on the market to be the governor of the state; that what party is coming for is to effect positive change in our political systems and to changing our orientation in Ekiti and Nigeria as a whole that nothing is impossible.
In his statement the Campaign Manager said the Politicians, Cults and Gangs Political violence in Nigeria is most often carried out by gangs whose members are openly recruited, financed and sometimes armed by public officials, politicians and party officials or their representatives.
These gangs, comprised primarily of unemployed young men are mobilized to attack their sponsors’ rivals, intimidate members of the public, rig elections and protect their patrons from similar attacks. Often, sponsors of political violence turn time and again to the same criminal gangs, violent campus-based “cults” and other sources to recruit agents of political violence.
Those recruited are paid, often very little, and sometimes armed for the sole purpose of carrying out violent abuses on behalf of their political sponsors which he said is the root of the criminality and the reason for violence during elections saying Action.Democratic party is not ready to partake in such in order to produce governor.
He further stated that most of the politicians are linked to cult groups—they finance them, they maintain them, they sustain them. And all that is out of the use of government funds.
Despite record-setting government revenues in recent years, corruption and mismanagement remain a major cause of government failure to make meaningful progress in improving the lot of ordinary Ekiti Persons.
These financial factors are closely entwined with the rampant political violence in the state in the recent times right from the time of Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
Public revenues are not only stolen and misused, but often pay for the services and weapons behind the political violence. Because violence and corruption make political competition a very expensive endeavor in Ekiti and Nigeria as a whole, many politicians are far more accountable to powerful and violent political godfathers who sponsor them than they are to their constituents.
The Action Democratic Party Youth Leader in his statement said there is disappointment now on the side of the PDP and APC that the his party will take advantage of their failures to produce the next governor without stress in order to save Ekiti state from the state where poverty and penury is rocking the citizens like a siege.
Ekiti State’s Political Godfathers.
Still talking on these godfathers, they are not mere financiers of political campaigns. Rather they are individuals whose power stems not just from wealth but from their ability to deploy violence and corruption to manipulate national, state or local political systems in support of the politicians they sponsor.
In return, they demand a substantial degree of control over the governments they help bring into being—not in order to shape government policy, but 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. Godfathers also require their sponsored politicians to use government institutions to generate patronage for other protégés which will not happen under labour party government he said.
If Action Democratic Party produce the next governor of this State, Ekiti will be the first state to enact and aggressively implement the Freedom of Information Bill, which would provide Nigerians and Ekiti Citizen a tool to compel government institutions to make public important information including basic data concerning expenditures and government policy.
Propose an Amendment to the Nigerian Constitution that would rescind the immunity from all criminal prosecution currently enjoyed by sitting governors. Corruption, Godfatherism and the Funding of Political Violence.
When you look at the situation in the country today our practice of democracy has in the recent times shows our readiness to walk-on the same path American trekked to become the father of all democratic government in the world, but still when you look at the situations in Nigeria and the politicians that supposed to be the key players are destroying the system through gangsterism and sponsored violent.
In many parts of Nigeria today, successful candidates are often those who are “sponsored” by wealthy and powerful individuals known in Nigerian parlance as political godfathers.
We all know what happen in the first tenure and the coming of Ayo Fayose when the going was good between him and the president of Nigeria then Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’ you can also imagine what happen during Engr.Segun Oni that took third at the primary election of the PDP and only to rob Yinka Akerele that took first at the primary election because he has no godfather.
This is the situation in Ekiti State today and no wonder almost 35 aspirants already warming up to occupy the first seat in the state.
In some cases godfathers are themselves public officials, using their access to public funds to sponsor lower-level officials.
Godfatherism is both a symptom and a cause of the violence and corruption that together permeate the political process in Nigeria.
Public officials who owe their position to the efforts of a political godfather incur a debt that they are expected to repay without end throughout their tenure in office.
Godfathers are only relevant because politicians are able to deploy violence and corruption with impunity to compete for office in contests that often effectively, and sometimes actually, exclude Nigeria’s voters altogether.
But their activities also help to reinforce the central role of violence and corruption in politics by making it even more difficult to win elected office without resorting to the illegal tactics they represent.
Nigeria’s godfatherism phenomenon is not unique to one party but as with many of the other abuses described in this write-up it is seen most often in the conduct of PDP/APC officials as both a cause and a result of the party’s success in maintaining itself in power.
I think Ekiti people will learn from the mistake of the past and choose Acrion Democratic Party this time and not on highest bidder take it all.
Tokunbo Ajayi
Campaign Manager/Youth Leader
Action Democratic Party
Ekiti State.
16th June, 2018
Read more at www.armanikedu.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment