I can confirm the problem.
~/gnugo-3.8$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME
~/gnugo-3.8$ make
[...]
gcc -g -O2 -o mkpat mkpat.o transform.o dfa.o ../utils/libutils.a -lncurses -lm
/usr/bin/ld: transform.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:861: multiple definition of `meaningless_white_moves'; mkpat.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:861: first defined here
/usr/bin/ld: transform.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:860: multiple definition of `meaningless_black_moves'; mkpat.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:860: first defined here
/usr/bin/ld: dfa.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:861: multiple definition of `meaningless_white_moves'; mkpat.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:861: first defined here
/usr/bin/ld: dfa.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:860: multiple definition of `meaningless_black_moves'; mkpat.o:/home/mm/gnugo-3.8/patterns/../engine/liberty.h:860: first defined here