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

The best thing you can get is a multiple entry visa to the UK. If a
godfather promised you that, you would do anything. To get a visa you
need to submit bank statements but the godfathers are multimillionaires,
they can do it for you…godfathers usually give out around
20 [visas] per campaign for the top cult members and loyalists.
He laughed and added, “That is why you get the worst Nigerians in London!” 113
The failure of politicians to deliver on such extravagant promises—all of which would
be entirely illegal in and of themselves even were they honored—has had lasting
consequences. In Rivers State, for example, state government officials armed and
mobilized criminal gangs to rig the 2003 election in favor of the PDP. 114 Many of those
groups feel that they were subsequently “dumped” when the officials they helped rig
into office failed to honor promises of government jobs and other forms of patronage.
This has led to a breakdown in relations between armed cult groups and their former
sponsors. Many of those former political thugs have put the arms and experience
they acquired rigging the 2003 elections to use in more generalized forms of violent
crime. This has given rise to a long and ongoing wave of uncontrolled criminal
violence in the state. The situation in Rivers is discussed in more detail below.
Box 2: Direct State Sponsorship of Thugs in Katsina
In at least one Nigerian state, Katsina, the state government paid money directly to
gangs of youth who were accused of carrying out widespread political violence in
return for those payments. Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua served as Governor of
Katsina State for eight years until being elected president in April 2007. According to
former state government officials, civil society activists and PDP Youth members, his
administration used state government money to maintain several thousand “PDP
Youth” on a regular monthly stipend of N5000 ($38). One former state government
official told Human Rights Watch that this PDP youth organization was essentially a
perversion of an initiative to empower unemployed youth in the state:
113 Human Rights Watch interview, Ibadan, April 6, 2007.
114 See below, Rivers State case study. See also Human Rights Watch, Rivers and Blood pp. 4-6.
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