- How they engage in political war of attrition
By ADELEKE ADESANYA
There is no doubt that godfathers have for long occupied very prominent and domineering position in Nigerian politics as they often times necessarily determine the fate of other less powerful politicians, who are usually referred to as their godsons. Most of the big incumbent political office holders in the country have ridden on the back of godfathers to attain their current heights both in politics and even in life. And in return, the godsons strive to satisfy the pecuniary and other cravings of their benefactors, often at the expense of the electorate.
But the relationship between godfathers and their godsons does not usually last. Betrayal usually rear its ugly heads and the initial cordial relationship between the two always soon give way to a cat and mouse game in which one tries to undo the other, politically. The tension and bitterness that normally trail this development have resulted in the country’s political landscape now being littered with the carcasses of the victims of this unending rivalry between political godfathers and their godsons.
Where the godfather and his godson engage in a fisticuff, the masses are also always the casualties as they’re deprived the dividends of democracy.
The betrayal and high rate of clashes between political godfathers and their godsons has lately attracted the attention of political analysts.
The Nigerian political turf is replete with many instances of the unending cat and mouse game between godfathers and their godsons.
Oshiomhole and Obasek
When Oshionhole was elected governor in Edo State, he gleefully announced to the people of the state that he had retired the godfathers in the state and that godfatherism had become a thing of the past in the state. But the current raging feud between Oshiomhole, who is now the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress and his successor in the office of the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has brought the problem to the front burner of politics once again.
At the twilight of his eight-year tenure in 2016, Oshiomhole did everything humanly possible to ensure that his anointed candidate, Obaseki, succeeded him as the next governor of Edo State. The former labour leader fought a bitter war with the opposition in the state to achieve this. He eventually succeeded in installing his anointed candidate as his successor. But Obaseki had barely settled down in office as the next governor of Edo State, when signs of a strained relationship with his godfather and benefactor, Oshiomhole became visible. And ever since then things have not been the same again between the two former allies. Now, the matter has got to a head with the Oshiomhole camp threatening to stop Governor Obaseki from having a second term in office. And the governor himself has been all out to ensure his godfather does not have his way.
Though no clear reason has been given for the current disagreement between the godfather and his godson, impeccable sources say it is not unconnected with the alleged outrageous monthly financial demand by Oshiomhole. It was gathered that Obaseki’s refusal to accede to his godfather’s request led to the current strained relationship and Oshiomhole’s alleged plan to stop the governor from having a second term in office in 2020.
Now, the battle between Obaseki and his godfather, Oshiomhole, is now raging in the state House of Assembly with the 15 members not inaugurated by the governor and said to be the APC national chairman’s loyalists now threatening to impeach the governor. How the raging battle between Governor Obaseki and his godfather, Oshiomhole, pans out remains a matter of conjecture.
Former Senate President Bukola Saraki
The Saraki dynasty used to in total control of the political terrain in Kwara until the run-up to the 2019 general elections. Before the former senate president, his father, the late Dr. Olusola Saraki’s political structure was such a strong and potent force that no other could contend with in the state.
The structure produced six governors for the state since 1979.
After the demise of his father, the immediate past senate president, Bukola Saraki, took over as the political godfather in the state.
His reign produced Ahmed Fatah as the governor and other elected politicians in the state.
But Saraki’s power and influence in the state’s political turf were quashed by the citizens, who decided to take their fate in their hands in the run-up to 2019 general elections.
The people’s resolve led to a humiliating defeat Saraki himself suffered in the election as he lost everything, including his personal bid to return to the Senate.
Recall that Saraki was elected governor of Kwara in 2003 under his father’s political machinery. After his tenure, he refused to support the candidature of his sister, Gbemisola. Instead, he supported Ahmed Abdulfatah, who floored his sister against the will of his father, and succeeded him as governor of the state.
In the build-up to the 2015 election, Saraki joined other aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party to form the nPDP. The nPDP would later join other parties to form the All Progressives Congress.
That did not affect his control of Kwara’s political machinery as his new party, APC, won the 2015 general elections in the state.
But shortly after the 2015 elections, Saraki defied the APC leradership’s directive to emerge the Senate president, having worked in collaboration with the opposition PDP lawmakers.
He eventually left the APC for the PDP in 2018 and sought the presidential ticket of the main opposition party. He, however, lost the primary to Atiku Abubakar.
Things then became worse for him as he also later lost his senatorial seat. His anointed candidate for the Kwara governorship was also defeated in all the 16 local government areas in the state with the magic wand of the “Oto ge” mantra. Overall, the PDP lost woefully in all the 2019 elections in Kwara.
Godswill Akpabio
Godswill Akpabio is a former Senate Minority Leader. He was the governor of Akwa Ibom State from 2007 to 2015.
During Akpabio’s tenure as governor, he was able to build a strong political structure for himself in the state. This could, however, not save him in the 2019 race. Akpabio, who left the PDP for the APC last year, lost his bid to return to the Senate to represent Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District. His new party, APC, also lost all the elections in Akwa Ibom.
Before the elections, Akpabio was so confident that he would not lose elections in the state. After all, he helped to install the incumbent governor, then a political neophyte, in 2015.
On July 16, 2018, while speaking at a rally in Ikot Ekpene, Akpabio had boasted, “God’s will will be done again and again, irrespective of the political party.” The following month, he defected to the APC after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari earlier in London.
Akpabio came into the political limelight in 2002, when he was appointed commissioner for petroleum and natural resources, local government and chieftaincy affairs and also lands and housing, respectively, at different times.
He used his Office as Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Local Government Affairs to build political structures across the 31 Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State. He defied the then governor, his godfather, Obong Victor Attah, to emerge the governorship candidate of the PDP in 2007 and was eventually elected governor. Since then, he’s had a firm grip on the politics of Akwa Ibom.
He was, however, humbled in his own game as his new party, APC, lost all the elections in Akwa Ibom to his former party, the PDP, now in the firm grip of a man he anointed as his successor in the office of the governor, Mr. Emmanuel Udom.
George Akume
George Akume is another godfather, who did not have things his own way in the 2019 elections.
Since his election as Benue governor in 1999 on the PDP platform, Akume had held a firm grip on the politics of the state. After he completed his eight-year tenure in 2007, he moved to the Senate. He won his Senate seat again in 2011, despite defecting to the Action Congress of Nigeria and he was elected the Minority Leader of the Senate.
Akume was again re-elected senator for Benue North-west in the 2015 elections on the platform of the APC, a party formed by the merger of different parties, including the ACN.
Akume also largely contributed to the victory of Samuel Ortom in the governorship election in Benue in 2015. Both men, however, went their separate ways in the aftermath of the repeated herdsmen’s killings in the state. Ortom moved to the PDP while Akume remained in the APC.
For the first time since 1999, however, Ortom lost an election in Benue, despite being a staunch member of the ruling APC. The APC also lost the presidential and governorship elections in Benue.
Ibikunle Amosun
Although Ibikunle Amosun, the immediate past governor of Ogun State, won his Ogun Central senatorial bid on the platform of the APC, he failed to achieve his ambition of installing his political godson, Adekunle Akinlade, as his successor and next governor of the state.
In December 2018, Amosun vowed to work against his party’s governorship candidate in the state. His preferred governorship candidate, Akinlade contested on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement.
Akinlade won a controversial governorship primary of the APC conducted by the party in the state. However, a panel sent by the headquarters of the party conducted a separate primary, which produced Dapo Abiodun.
Abiodun was the favoured candidate of ex-Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, and his former Ogun State counterpart, Chief Olusegun Osoba. Amosun had long fallen out with the two, who were his own political godfathers.
Amosun tried to ensure his protege became governor against all odds, even at the expense of his party, the APC. However, the 12 years he spent holding elective positions in the state were not enough to deliver Ogun to his anointed candidate. His own godfathers- Osoba and Tinubu- ensured he did not have his way.
Osoba reportedly once publicly expressed his regret working for the emergence of Amosun as governor in 2011. The APC national leader, spoke while addressing leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ogun State Chapter, when the incumbent governor, Prince Dapo, who was then the APC governorship candidate, visited the secretariat of the union in Abeokuta, the state capital.
Osoba, however, had said he was proud to say that he spent all the money that he had to make Amosun governor in 2011 on the platform of the Action Congress.
Osoba even said on the occasion that he wished to stand as a guarantor for Abiodun before the NLC, pledging that he would not maltreat workers in the state when eventually elected into office.
Rochas Okorocha
Like his Ogun State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha in Imo also supported the governorship candidate of another party. His party, the APC, has equally suspended his membership.
Okorocha contested to represent Imo West Senatorial District in the February 23, 2019 election. Though the returning officer, Innocent Ibeabuchi, declared Okorocha winner after a controversial collation of results, he clearly noted he did so “under duress”.
In INEC’s list of senators-elect, Okorocha’s name was omitted. “Declaration made under duress”, was boldly written instead.
Sadly, despite his spirited fight, the two-term governor of the state could not secure the emergence of his preferred candidate in Imo.
Okorocha supported his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, of the Action Alliance to succeed him, but Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP eventually won in the state.
He finally got a court judgement, which made INEC to issue him his certificate of return. Okorocha joined the Senate a few days after the inauguration of the 9th Senate.
Abiola Ajimobi
Ajimobi is another godfather who crashed with his political son in the 2019 elections.
He contested in 2011 under the ACN and was elected governor of Oyo State in a keen contest.
He was returned in 2015 under the APC and became the first person to occupy the Oyo governorship seat twice in the state.
Ajimobi enjoyed the confidence of the party’s national leadership to the extent of being entrusted with the reconciliation of members in other states.
While he enjoyed national recognition by the APC, locally within Oyo State, his actions split the party and angered the populace.
A large number of APC members, including supporters of a late former governor, Lam Adesina, left the party while many residents of Ibadan, the largest city in the state, were annoyed at his decision to tamper with their chieftaincy system.
By the time the 2019 elections were being conducted, the people of the state had got tired of Ajimobi’s antics and the ruling APC.
The APC lost both the presidential and National Assembly elections in Oyo. Many of Ajimobi’s anointed candidates also lost state house of assembly elections in the state. The governor himself lost in his bid to be elected a senator.
