Nigeria as Cosa Nostra
A new report from Human Rights Watch, Criminal Politics: Violence, "Godfathers" and Corruption in Nigeria, suggests that organized crime might be a better analogue for Nigeria's political system than some theoretical "developing democracy."
There are four case studies in the report from the states of Oyo, Anambra, Rivers, and Gombe. Perhaps groups of students could summarize these case studies and the whole class could make comparisons.What measures would your students suggest we use to evaluate Nigeria's political system and compare it to others?
The report (123 pages) and a 9-page summary are available as downloads from Human Rights Watch.
This report is from the New York Times:
Report Traces Twisting Routes to Power in Nigeria
"[A] new report on Nigeria released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch... says that the real sources of power in Nigeria are the wealthy political godfathers who financed an epidemic of election-related violence that killed at least 300 people in the flawed election. And ballots, the report says, are no match for the bullets of the gangs hired by politicians to rig the vote.
"'The conduct of many public officials and government institutions is so pervasively marked by violence and corruption as to more resemble criminal activity than democratic governance,' the report says...
"The report lays out in stark detail the contracts made between politicians seeking office and the rich kingmakers who back them in exchange for kickbacks from government coffers. It also describes the brutal means used by criminal gangs to sway elections, including intimidation and assassination, in the 2003 and 2007 elections, both of which were marked by violence, fraud and administrative incompetence...
"Nigeria’s new president, Umaru Yar’Adua, has admitted there were lapses in the election and pledged to reform the electoral system to stamp out abuses..."
The Human Rights Watch report on "godfatherism" in Nigeria:
"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 the ruling PDP, but as with many of the other abuses described in this report it is seen most often in the conduct of PDP officials as both a cause and a result of the party’s success in maintaining itself in power."
On "Impunity and Governance in Nigeria:"
"Throughout Nigeria there exists a deeply entrenched culture of impunity that developed at all levels of Nigeria’s government under military rule and remains as a source of the country’s worst human rights abuses since the return to civilian rule in 1999. On several occasions since then, the Nigerian military has carried out misdirected reprisals against civilian populations, destroying entire communities and murdering hundreds of Nigerian civilians. No one has been held to account for ordering or participating in those atrocities."
Labels: corruption, elections, Nigeria, political culture, rule-of-law
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:08 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home