2015: SYCOPHANCY AND POLITICTKING

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The road to 2015 election is being nurtured with lies, deceit and sycophancy in the name of choosing a successor for President Goodluck Jonathan and Governors and the clamour of which zone/ethnic group produces the President/Governor. Democracy and electing political leaders all over the world has its norms, order, processes and decent way of aspiring to elective political offices. Our Nigerian practices seem to go against the norm. What is it?

Honest appreciation and admiration for quality work and sterling character is healthy and often necessary. It helps ensure morale and the continuation of top performance and conduct. It is when praise is used as a smokescreen to fog truth and to hide incompetence that it becomes a matter of concern. From genuine praise it merges into sycophancy (khushamed), a weapon of the weak deployed to lower defenses to those in a position of relative strength. It is meant to subordinate principles to politicking. The key factor, therefore, is the position held by the recipient of sycophancy.

Complimenting a colleague is large-heartedness and encouraging a subordinate is considerateness. Juxtaposed with that, ‘puffing up’ a boss could convey the bad breath of sycophancy. It is in official circles that sycophancy flourishes the most and causes the larger damage. An incompetent boss likes to have his ego massaged by his subordinates. An inept subordinate over-compensates by flattery coupled with backbiting of his peers to prove to his boss his credentials as a well-wisher. The approach of a sycophant is simple: bully juniors and butter seniors. However, flattery, according to James Wolcott in the August issue of Vanity Fair, is only part of the “oral repertoire” of a sycophant. A successful sycophant “is also a skillful tattletale… dolling out information” that enhances his “resource value”.

“Most people succumb to gossip just as they do to flattery, unable to resist what they feign to be above”. The objective for the clever sycophant is to “wiggle under the defenses of those being wooed” This is a game in which youth has an advantage: “For the middle-aged authority figure, coaching some intern or cub reporter is an opportunity to shape the future and take pride in the progress of a protégé,” The skill subordinate “knows how to play upon these feelings and tickle the ivories of his elders.”

Linked with the human condition, sycophancy is a universal malady. More so, perhaps, in settings where the administration of justice is highly personalized. There sycophancy tends to further override the already weak institutional arrangements. In a larger sense, sycophancy had pernicious policy implications. It chokes critical feedback of policies, insulates the governing elites by suppressing facts, and by creating a larger than life image, maintains an ongoing dalliance with delusions. Also it reduces the threshold of tolerance. From the top, the benefits of sycophancy trickle down to the bottom, making the non-sycophant stick out awkwardly.

Who is being pandered to and to what end? Sycophancy is a civilized form of insincerity through which, among other things, yes-men gain upward mobility from their object of supplication. The message is clear: to get along, you go along. Merit is the first casualty. As noted by Richard Stengel, in his book, you’re too kind. A Brief History of Flattery: “Flattery is the choice of a competitor who known he is likely to fail in direct competition.” Sycophancy assumes then the form of an institution with its own system of rewards and penalties. Especially so, in bureaucratic surroundings, where law is frequently applied against the ‘lawaris’.

The chameleon-like character or the lack of sycophants is never more evident when there is a possibility of a change of administration. Keeping both their ends covered, they carry out a coy flirtation with the would-be powerbrokers while adroitly reaffirming their loyalties to the incumbents. Yesterday’s traitor becomes tomorrow’s patriot. The sleazy tail left by the changeable convictions of past sycophants has never failed to deter aspiring sycophants who are in the apprentice stage of their careers. The meshing together of the old class-ridden despotic order – with it flowery verse and florid prose – with the demands of a quasi-defunct colonials order makes the terrain ripe for the breeding of sycophants. The spillover effects of sycophants have operated as a hindrance to a maturing of a foreign policy befitting an independent and sovereign nation.

Our political space has been crowded with the activities of these sycophants and political jobbers without shame. Decorum has been thrown to the wind. Since the demise of the third term and just two years into this administration, aspirants upon aspirants from zone to zone has been renting crowed in the name of different interest cum pressure groups, traditional rulers, youth organizations, students, cultural and ethnic base groups calling on perceived aspirants to come forth and context in the 2015 elections.

All of these groups’ meetings press conferences and rallies are paid and sponsored by the supposed interested aspirants. The indignities go to the extent that some aspirants not only consult pastors/marabouts but also hired pastors who set up prayer groups to pray, prophesy and politick in the name of intercession. None come up with programs and manifestoes of how to either better the lots of the downtrodden or proffer solution to the many socio-economical and political problems bedeviling our nation. We are seeing, yet again, the submerging of the fundamental issues of the day by clumsy but effectively presented trivia. The desired objectives of a fundamental political shift that involves a radically different way of governance, re-establishing of institutions that will guarantee rights and justice, injection of honesty and inclusiveness in management of public affairs, and a generation handover of power have been closed out of the current discourse and process of choosing a successor for the incumbent leaders.

In a society as plural as our and locked into present adversarial mechanism of government, the temptations of selfish and/or partisan interest must be sublated in favour of the national interest. Empirical evidence indicates, in no uncertain terms, that leadership and small egos are mutually exclusive. A consequence of this is leaders’ willingness and/or inability to accept points of view different from theirs and the reflexive tendency to see such views as opposition to them. Thus we should not be unduly surprised to discover that sycophants had become the order of the day. What has factionalized Nigerian Governors Forum? What has driven CPC, ACN, ANPP, and part of APGA to merge?

What is driving ACF, NEF and various groups in the North part of Nigeria to say they will not allow the south to rule again at the presidential level? What is driving Governor Amaechi not only betray his people, South south region but is putting the resources of Rivers State at the disposal of Northern Governors and political elites from the North to work against President Jonathan presidency in 2015? The dis-honourable legislators of Rivers State House of Assembly are just manifesting the degree this symptom of sycophancy has eaten into them that they have lost sense of reasoning, good governance and legislative decorum. News media has unwillingly or willingly become the tool and medium celebrating and enforcing sycophancy and politicking. What are we begetting to next generations of leaders?

There is an old Hindu saying that goes like this: “Guru (teacher) blind the chayla (disciple) deaf.” It expresses succinctly the present-day situation. Once the leader is kowtowed to and adoringly worshiped by his followers, he becomes blind to, and hence tolerates, their shortcomings. In this kind of scenario, sycophancy is equated with team spirit and elevated to the level of loyalty. Naturally what follows is the anointing of the sickest sycophant. To maintain their status and privileges, sycophants, always desperately insecure, try to outdo each other in stroking the leader’s ego. They would never disagree with the leader, no matter how misguided his ideas may be, their intent is to reflect the same or an intensified image of that projected by the leader.

Thus when the leader declares, “the bull full,” they would obligingly chorus, “And he having twins”, Objectivity is to be avoid at all costs, for venturing an opinion that varies from that of the clique would result in a precipitous fall from grace. Self-preservation thus becomes motivation for loyalty and compliance replaces competence. Mediocrity now becomes King, setting in motion a vicious downward cycle. In this scenario performance is of little consequence, as politicking, posturing and demonizing becomes cycle. In this scenario performance is of little consequence, as politicking, posturing and demonizing becomes the order of the day. This leads to a severe actualization of the motto. “The friend of my enemy is my enemy.”

Ask what have some of these aspirants done to better the lots of people in their constituency? Instead of networking, reaching out to people across all geopolitical groups, some of the aspirants rent crowd and get pastors to prophesy their victory in coming election that only God will determine. “Power seekers are more concerned with how to outdo one another, naira dollar for dollars, rigging for rigging and thuggery for thuggery than addressing the major problem confronting the people” (Ademola Adegbanigbe).

The Bible consistently spoke out against the corruptive effects of fulsome praise uttered to one’s face. It admonitions have not been adequately followed to our collective detriment. It is not which zone/ethnic group should produce the various offices come 2015, but who has what it takes under God to give leadership and offer programs that will meet the needs of majority of Nigerians no matter their ethnic group or religion. Sycophancy as political way of seeking elective office by aspirants only reduces the worth of such aspirants and it offers no program. I hope this kind of politicking will come to an end and we can hopefully see some service delivery… let’s be objective and not let sycophancy cloud our judgment.


Written By Dr. Lewis Akpogena
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