Sycophancy Around Leadership; A Big Bane!
By Hashim Suleiman
I was just listening to a programme on television about the ground breaking of the controversial coastal road that should have been an awesome project but for the mismanagement by the sort of individuals that my article of today wishes to describe and I indeed reconfirmed to myself that leadership may not necessarily be the problem but rather the availability of critical helpers and vision carriers even though it is incumbent on leaders to have all it takes to identify true love and fake one.
His Excellency, Hope Uzodinma had been called upon to make a remark at this event and he showered encomiums on the President as expected and went to to inform the President that all Nigerian families were elated and happy because their children are benefiting from the Student’s Loan policy of Mr President and I paused owing to my criticality and be like, is this man not speaking about the same Student’s Loan of which the portal for application was launched barely a week or little more before now? You also had a Permanent Secretary by name Kofarmata adorned in his Yoruba cap and venturing into politics and calling to question a need to know questions by opposition and citizens, a critical ingredient of democracy, when did it become mandatory for civil servants to sycophant around a leader instead of itemizing professional tendencies around the workings of the policies of the president?
Even though, I ascribed Governor Uzodinma his right to sycophancy as is with every or most Nigerians around power, my greater expectation was for the President to have recognized that was a lie and call him out immediately or afterwards unless of course if anyone was to tell me the President himself was not aware about the level of progress on the Student Loan programme and that would be pathetic and must elicit scare in a 42 years old self because I thought we should have since passed this stage of leaders allowing lies pass by them without identifying them immediately and calling them out for deterrence.
All this can confirm in the interim perhaps is President Tinubu is not aware of the granular workings around his major policy statements and how they are being worked to fruition, recall Student Loan was one of those. For Governor Hope Uzodinma himself to boldly lie to the president by way of praises means he’s aware perhaps that indeed the president is not aware about the detailed workings and direction of his government.
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Such kind of shenanigans have become the bane of leadership from the Goodluck Jonathan era till date, when you see how supporters insist there cannot be criticism of the administrations and that lies must be told to the leader to make a point, in fact a popular rumor had it that different newspapers are printed for the presidents, this narrative was more prominent during the Buhari Presidency.
I must also share the Goodluck Jonathan regime episode of me insisting to a confidant of the administration that the President cannot win the north owing to what I see back home and a meeting was conveyed with another northerner like me who worked with the then Vice President and this fellow denied me flat and made me look like a hater, he insisted Goodluck had no problems whatsoever in the north with the likes of Bafarawa, Shekarau etc, people whom I knew had become more of expired politicians at the time owing to the dissent that was developed on Goodluck Jonathan in that region, a lot has changed after all.
Story short, this guy’s narrative was over my own and I was sure his sort of narrative held sway at the presidential villa, the rest is history.
Go on the X handle today (formerly twitter) and see the conversations, the supporters of ruling parties at the federal or state levels simply disagree for their governments to be criticized, they insist everyone must tell the boss all is well per second and what they foolishly forget is their actions are the ones preventing their own participation in the various governments because who would want to loose attack dogs who can lie and attack everyone for a pot of porridge.
It is when the government is under pressure that a need for shakeups can come up which can offer opportunities for those on the sidelines to get involved but their intellectual laziness which in the first instance is the reason they chose sycophancy will not allow them see and know that.
Finally, while I agree that a leader may not have the luxury to know everything happening around them but I do know that certain leaders have all it takes to assemble machinery that is well equipped to fetch them the facts and critically examine them to ensure synergy with the ongoings in their administration and that was why in 2022, I had highlighted that those beautiful Asiwaju Tinubu recruits of 1999-2007 themselves do not know how to recruit sound people like them and such is leading to the so many errors and incoherence that is attracting too many bashings on the administration of President Bola Tinubu and I wish anyone could send this narrative to the president. You can read that article here: https://oneheartnaija.wordpress.com/2022/04/11/asiwajus-recruits-dont-know-how-to-recruit-by-hashim-suleiman/
God bless Nigeria.
Hashim Suleiman
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