PATRON
-CLIENT POLITICS AND NATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The research provides an appraisal of patron-client politics and national
development in Nigeria.
It
provides both a conceptual and theoretical appraisal of patron client politics and national
development.
INTRODUCTION
Richard
A. Joseph… is usually credited with first using the term prebendalism to
describe patron-client or neopatrimonialism in Nigeria. Since then the term has
commonly been used in scholarly literature and textbooks. The Catholic
Encyclopedia defines a prebend as the “right of member of chapter to his share
in the revenues of a cathedral.” Joseph used the term to describe the sense of
entitlement that many people in Nigeria feel they have to the revenues of the
Nigerian state. Elected officials, government workers, and members of the
ethnic and religious groups to which they belong feel they have a right to a
share of government revenues Joseph wrote: “According to the theory of prebendalism,
state offices are regarded as prebends that can be appropriated by
officeholders, who use them to generate material benefits for themselves and
their constituents and kin groups…” As a result of that kind of patron-client
or identity politics, Nigeria has regularly been one of the lowest ranked
nations for political transparency by Transparency International in its
Corruption Perceptions.
As
Oluwafemi stated: many Nigerians may not know the term, but they know the
practices and attitudes to which it refers.To understand prebendalism, it is
necessary to grasp what is a prebend. The dividing line is when the office
holder is able to appropriate
the office, that is, convert it into his or her piece of the state. In contemporary
Nigeria, and other peripheral capitalist countries, there is a short
time-horizon in which resources accruing to the office can be diverted for
personal and related uses, or for the capital accumulation which it
facilitates. “The prebendalization of the patrimonial state”, in the Wikipedia
excerpt, is therefore an apt formulation. Prebendalism is not necessarily Nigerian.
It is entrenched and a pervasive nature in a country; and how prebendal
attitudes were woven into what Ken Post and Michael Vickers had earlier
described as a “conglomerate society”, i.e., a nation composed of cultural
sections defined by ethnicity, language, region and cultural practices. Patron-client
mechanisms were fundamental features of a dynamic system that linked the
appropriation of state offices in Nigeria to the material and welfare of thepeople.A key consideration is what happens
to the state itself. A prebendalized
system, however, is inherently unstable. Aspirations to build a capable state,
a democratic system, and a coherent nation are ultimately foiled by prebendal
practices.
CHAPTER I
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE
STUDY
Segun
Ayobolu (2011) provided occupants of public office at all levels in the second
republic felt that their positions entitled them to unbridled access to public
resources with which they not only satisfied their own material needs but also
serviced the needs or wants of subaltern clients… This kind of criminal
diversion of public resources for selfish private ends starved the polity of
funds for development, increased poverty and inequality, and intensified an
unhealthy rivalry and competition for public office that triggered pervasive
instability. The crippling consequences of dysfunctional governance are
experienced in all areas of life in Nigeria. There is a fundamental
contradiction between patron client and the provision of efficient public
services. The research intends to investigate patron- client politics and
national development in Nigeria.
1.3
RESEARCH QUESTION
1 What is the nature of patron client
politics?
2
What constitute national development?
1.4 OBJECTIVE
OF THE STUDY
1
To appraise the
nature of patron client politics in Nigeria
2
To appraise national development
3
To determine the effect of patron client politics on national development
1.5
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study
shall project the effect of patron client politics on the nations development With
a view to determining measures to reverse the trend in the interest of
chanelling public Resources to national development.
1.6
STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS
1
H0 The level
of national development in Nigeria is
low
H1 The level
of national development in Nigeria is
high
2 H0 The level
of patron client politics in Nigeria is low
H1 The level
of patron client politics in Nigeria is high
3 H0 The effect
of patron client politics on national development in Nigeria is low
H1 The
effect of patron client politics on national development in Nigeria is high
1.7
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study is focused on the appraisal of patron
client politics and its effect on national development. It analyzes the nature
of patron client politics and profers
measures to mitigate and reverse the trend so as to enhance the chanelling of
economic resources to national development.
1.8
DEFINITION OF TERMS
PATRON CLIENT POLITICS
Richard
A. Joseph… is usually credited with first using the term prebendalism to
describe patron-client or neopatrimonialism in Nigeria. Since then the term has
commonly been used in scholarly literature and textbooks. The Catholic
Encyclopedia defines a prebend as the “right of member of chapter to his share
in the revenues of a cathedral.” Joseph used the term to describe the sense of
entitlement that many people in Nigeria feel they have to the revenues of the
Nigerian state. Elected officials, government workers, and members of the
ethnic and religious groups to which they belong feel they have a right to a
share of government revenues Joseph wrote: “According to the theory of
prebendalism, state offices are regarded as prebends that can be appropriated
by officeholders, who use them to generate material benefits for themselves and
their constituents and kin groups…” As a result of that kind of patron-client
or identity politics, Nigeria has regularly been one of the lowest ranked
nations for political transparency by Transparency International in its
Corruption Perceptions
DEVELOPMENT
ROGER (1976) describe
development as the type of social change in which new ideas are introduce
within a social system to produce higher
capital incomes and levels of living through more production, Method and improved social organization.