Political Leadership in Nigeria and the Bane of Sycophancy
L K Solomon
“A song may sound terrible initially, but if you keep listening to it, chances are you will subconsciously begin to like it.” -An African Proverb.
There are two things a well-intentioned leader must do to be effective in office; one is to guard against developing a belief that he knows it all and that he is above his subjects and the law; being strong yet not arrogant is a personal attribute. The second is to have a personal means of assessing performance and avoid obliterating his true sources of feedback.
These may seem simple but often in the power, luxury and pressures surrounding African political offices, it becomes practically difficult, even for the well-intentioned leader. Two factors may contribute toward this; firstly political pressures from ‘higher’ powers and secondly, surrounding self with sycophants (knowingly or unknowingly). Here we will take a closer look at sycophancy.
The word sycophant is defined in the Collins English Dictionary as ‘a person who uses flattery to win favour from people with power or influence’ while the American Heritage Dictionary of English Language defines it as ‘a servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people’. Their ultimate intentions are personal gains. They are generally sneaky, masters at masking their true intentions. They drip-feed leaders with praise-singing, profess their loyalty and are careful to say the things the leaders are adjudged to want to hear. They are power hungry with an aim of gradually cultivating their way to a leader’s ears and then his heart. Once there, they then engage in a ruthless battle to upstage any well intentioned persons perceived to be a threat and scheme to install others like themselves. They are experts at using the name of the office and the impression they create as ‘the leader’s right hand men’ to explore avenues for financial and other personal gains.
To the leader however, the danger is that he is cut-off from having a true picture of what is actually happening around him and his constituency. The constant praise-singing by the sycophants also adds to false sense of infallibility of the leader. Very quickly the leader finds himself living in this cocoon surrounded by the sycophants shielding off every one else. Sycophants are then his advisors, friends and confidants. This scenario may go undetected until he eventually sees off his term in office, becomes exposed to the outer world and the realisation suddenly hit him that he had performed far below par! At this stage, more often than not, he would have been abandoned by these sycophants who are then leeching up to another political office holder.
One of the things a good leader must do once he gets into political office is to avoid sycophants as much as possible. This might not be easy but is a step worth taking.
Generally in Africa, political appointments are determined by political pressures and tribal quota allocation of offices. Even at that the onus is on the leader to make sure that those appointed are people he is comfortable working with and in line with his political vision. This is crucial because the quality and character of the political appointees will be a good reflection of the intentions of his government. Hence from the out set he must be ruthless and not be pressured into accepting persons he thinks might be unreliable. He should thus impress it upon the politicians, godfathers and ethnic leaders the prototype of persons acceptable to him and be uncompromising on this.
But the most important step in avoiding sycophants and having a good source of personal feedback is the personal staff of the political office (political aides). Here the leader is mostly free to make his appointments with minimal political interference. These positions include personal assistants, chief of staff, press secretary etc. This is where it is important that the leader appoints 2 to 3 of his reliable friends which should be people he has known possibly for a very long time. These are the people that could be blunt with him, assess true situation of things, stand up to him when he is going wrong, and generally offer friendship in these very high-pressure environments. Of course it goes without saying that such a leader should not be over arrogant and instill fear into such friends.
Sometimes there are very reliable friends a leader wished were around him but due to circumstances, were unavailable for political appointments. Such friends could still offer valuable advice from time to time and are usually a very reliable source of feedback. It is worthwhile keeping these friends on the radar and to make it relatively easy for them to have access to him when needed. Sycophants in office are very good at spotting such persons and do their utmost best to frustrate these persons in an effort to stop them coming around.
In his article ‘The Failure of Leaders’ by the American leadership guru Ray Blunt, he wrote that to avoid failure “Get yourself a wise mentor or something akin to a personal board of directors—people you meet with regularly who can be honest with you (and you with them) and who are discreet enough to be trusted to listen to your struggles and not broadcast them. We all need a community of people to get through this life well. We don’t always recognize that need at work, yet it is at work that we may need it most. Good mentors and good friends are worth their weight in gold, not just to avoid failure of course, but also to help us learn and grow.”
So how do you spot a sycophant in your office? Being vigilant . A sycophant will always tell you what you want to hear when asked for an opinion and hardly even respectfully disagrees with you. They are also very petty and often eager to run other staff members down, especially those they perceive you trust. They are also very desperate to be around you all the time. They most times will be nice to anyone that matters to you but treat others shabbily.
Political sycophancy is a serious problem in African politics and often contributes to derail even the well intentioned leader into a false assessment of performance, political arrogance and financial mismanagement. A good leader should be uncompromising in avoiding them, if he is to succeed.
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