The 2023 Lagos State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olajide Adediran, popularly called Jandor, has blamed the influence of political Godfathers in Nigeria on poverty.

Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television, Jandor asserted that it is difficult to achieve true party democracy due to the power wielded by political Godfathers

He detailed how entrenched local leadership structures, bolstered by economic hardship, allow a few powerful individuals to dictate political outcomes.

He said, “In a session whereby you have a leader in a local government, for instance… and picked all the entire world and the LG as far as that place is concerned is in charge, so you only need to talk to one person if you want to be anything.

“There is poverty down there, you know, and you know at the sprinkle of little thing, people would scramble to say, ‘Oh, I would rather want to be with this guy, you know, with this guy and all that who is spending.’”

Jandor highlighted that this phenomenon makes it “difficult” to achieve true internal party democracy without comprehensive electoral reforms that prevent individuals from “owning” delegates or the entire political structure at the grassroots.

He noted that this issue is pervasive across Nigerian political parties, irrespective of their size, with the larger parties simply drawing more attention to the problem.