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THE PATRON -CLIENT POLITICS AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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.

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 QUESTIONS

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

H0:  The level of national development in Nigeria  is low.

H1:  The level of national development in Nigeria is  high.

H0:   The level of patron client politics in Nigeria is low.

H1:    The level of patron client politics in Nigeria is high.

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.

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