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INTRODUCTION
Along with other African nations, Nigeria embraced democracy in the 1990s as a viable alternative to military rule (Anugwom 2001; White & Taylor 2001). The first attempt in this period was the stalemated Third Republic orchestrated by General Babangida, but forced into the doldrums by the same man through the annulment of the 12 June 1993 presidential election. Nigeria consequently went into military rule under General Sani Abacha from 1993 till his demise on 8 June 1998. The return of the nation to civil rule once again commenced with Abacha's successor, General Abubakar, who initiated the process that brought about the inauguration of the Fourth Republic and civil rule on 29 May 1999.
However, even though civil rule is preferred to the military, patronage - though not peculiar to Nigeria - remains an essential aspect of Nigeria's politics. It involves a sort of social relations in stratified socio-political systems whereby valued resources are exchanged between the ruling and the ruled (Lemarchand 1981; Stein 1996). Whereas the ruling class may grant 'goods' in the form of projects, gifts, offices and other pecuniary gains to clients, clients yield loyalty in return. And since the electorate (clients) is vital to the political process as seemingly the ultimate determinants of who gets to power, their loyalty, objectified through votes, becomes vital to whoever seeks power. This may explain Joseph's (1991: 116) assertion that only politicians and parties that 'deliver the goods' survive Nigeria's political terrain.
In apparent confirmation of Joseph's position, Olurode (1986), while giving vivid examples, stated that a politician who had served in a higher political office as commissioner in the Western Region, lost the local government chairmanship (mayor) election to a politician of relatively lesser political prestige due to his failure to influence government-financed rural development projects at Iwo, his home town. Likewise, Olurode stated that another wealthy politician from the same town, who was a member of the Constituent Assembly, damaged his political image because he did not initiate or develop projects of public interest in Iwo town. He too, therefore, lost political relevance. Indeed, from Olurode's and Joseph's submissions, clients seemingly exact enormous influence on the political career of the ruling class. However, the fact remains that...