Criminal Politics: Violence, “Godfathers” and Corruption in Nigeria

along with at least two to three busloads full of other cult and gang members who
received the same payment. As of then, N25,000 was more than three times the
starting monthly wage of many civil servants in Anambra State. 103 “We are contracted
to do this,” the man said. “I earn money through my civil engineering and through
politics. I get more money in politics.” 104
The leader of an armed gang whose primary stronghold stretches across part of Port
Harcourt told Human Rights Watch that in 2003 he and numerous other cult and
gang leaders had been paid between N3 million and N10 million ($23,000 to
$77,000) each to “disrupt the election in favor of our governor [Peter Odili]…[w]e
stood at the election grounds so people would not come [to vote],” he said. “There
was no election.” 105 Similar payments were reportedly handed out during the 2007
elections in Rivers. 106
The use and funding of political violence is by no means restricted to the PDP—the
2007 elections saw violent abuses committed on all sides. As one prominent lawyer
in Oyo State put it: often rival politicians “are fishing from the same pond. They all
make use of thugs.” 107 A group of young men affiliated with the outlawed O’odua
People Congress (OPC) told Human Rights Watch that they would work for anyone
able to pay them to carry out acts of violence ahead of the 2007 elections. 108 “We are
not interested in your writing,” one of them told Human Rights Watch. “Your writing
does not feed us. Bring money, bring guns, bring the logistics. It is war now and we
want to see action.” 109 But because the PDP controls the machinery of state in much
of Nigeria, it is often better positioned to mobilize the resources necessary to fund
political violence than other parties.
103 Starting civil servant salaries in Anambra were reportedly pegged at N7000 in 2007.
104 Human Rights Watch interview with cult member, Awka, February 14, 2007.
105 Human Rights Watch interview, Port Harcourt, April 12, 2007.
106 See below, Rivers State case study.
107 Human Rights Watch interview, Ibadan, February 9, 2007.
108 The OPC is a violent Yoruba self-determination group responsible for widespread human rights abuses in the past. See
Human Rights Watch, Nigeria— The O’odua People’s Congress: Fighting Violence with Violence, vol. 15, no. 4(A), February
2003, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/nigeria0203.
109 Human Rights Watch interview, Ibadan, April 8, 2007.
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