Overcoming Sycophancy in Governance – By Arnold A. Alalibo

Posted by admin Arnold Alalibo, Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists, Presidency Saturday, January 5th, 2013

By Arnold A. Alalibo / NNP / Jan. 5, 2013 – James Cardinal Gibbons once said” “the trouble with being a leader today is that you cannot be sure whether people are following you or chasing you”.

There are respective forms of government, but on close examination of them it is apparent that democracy is the only one which needs propitions leaders and followers.

When great leaders are borne by good followers, what results is support to the leaders to perform better. But this is probable when the followers are at franchise to agree or disagree with such leaders where it is inevitable.

The theory which says leaders are self-made is presumptive.

In fact, leaders, good leaders, are proceeds of good followership by those who lend brace and selfless service to them.

Those who lead decoy commendation or criticism from their subjects, and this is missed, as same. When criticism or eulogy is constructive, leaders are edified. It is not odd to criticise or praise a leader whose performance is deserving of praise or criticism. To quote Lord Bryce, they are: “Visionaries who instincts for their nation’s future have a course to steer, a part to seek a nation to lead and people to mould”.

In Africa, nay Nigeria, it is knotty to be on the side of truth and stick out one’s neck for those in authority.

This is particularly worse in Nigeria where such attempt might court altercation. Many Nigerian leaders are consistently inconsistent, selfish and hardly stand for the truth or at least for principles. Because of the unprincipled stand of the leaders, some of them find themselves thoroughly messed up when the chips are down.

But it has also been discovered that some leaders take unprincipled stand because of poor followership and lack of gratitude by the led. When leaders are encouraged, they tend to lead aright. This was the practice even in the ancient era.

They muster democratic energies and boldness to damn anti-people and undemocratic policies. Such leaders are not desperate when new leaders are emerging and so will not bar or run them down.

There are some sycophants, who don’t see anything good or bad will attempt to hoot at emanating visionaries and selfless heads.

In Africa, leadership is fast becoming a thing of hereditary.

A man will seldom relinguish leadership position to someone outside his family, his circle of friends or those in his poltical cliques, who share similar interest with him.

Those who benefit from this system and feed fat on it would want to entrench it deeply.

There were occasions where some politicians who could hardly afford three square meals before assuming office, now have their children and wards in expensive schools in Europe and America.

In this circumstance, does one expect the progenies of these politicians to accept new leaders that may not guarantee their continuous indulgence in the ill-gotten wealth?

Sycophancy is all about selfish gains. But it is wrong for anyone to view every positive write-up or opinion about a leader as sycophantic.

Those who commended late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his party for their principled stand against the Tafawa Balewa government’s attempt at signing a military pact with the British in the First Republic were no sycophants. In fact, by their commendation they gave great encouragement to these leaders who today have been acknowledged for their various roles in their struggles for the nation’s independence.

Men like Amos, the Isreali writer, who extolled David Ben-Gurion for providing the needed leadership for the emergence of the modern Israeli state, was not a sycophant. General VO Nguyen, who with his inspiring articles in the newspapers applauded the Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Mihn, was not a hired praise singer, but a soldier. Ghanshyam Das Birla, who abetted Mohandas Gandhi in his struggles for India’s independence and the early stages of his leadership was not a sycophant. Several writers or followers, who have foreborne no lengthy panegyric in describing good leaders are no fawners.

Leadership is not a simple task. In a time of crisis when some refuse to be identified, true leaders emerge and take principled stand. Take, for instance, during the debate on the constitutional amendment and the controversial tenure elongation in former President Obasanjo’s era, it took people of conscience and principle to take a stand either for or against. This threw up some potential leaders who would manifest in dew course.

Hence, those leaders who because of ulterior motives or fear of their political masters remain silent in the visage of crises are cowards. Good leaders, would make their positons known despite intimidation or threats from the powers that be. Winston Churchill describes these courageous leaders as those who “will take a decision to protect civilizations even though at great risk to themselves”.

A leader’s authority normally derives from the public’s belief in the need for his services and in his ability to rule; in the willingness of the individuals to suspend their own judgement and accept their leader because they trust him and the system he represents.

Sometimes the relationship between a leader and his followers may not be as smooth as it ought to be or undergoes periods of distrust or tension, and there is a drifting part not always result from a simple case of less of popularity by the leader but rather of credibility when the people discover that their leader deceives and lies to them regularly, thus creating a credibility gap between what he says and what he does, between what is reported and what eventually turns out to be the truth.

Like the shepherd boy in the fable who had his fun in deceiving his community that wolves had come to take his sheep when in fact nothing of the kind happened, a government that too readily rationalises its right to lie in a crisis will never lack for either lies or crises when it least expects them.

Nigeria is a state that comprises diverse ethnic groups, and it will be critical if a government fails to acknowledge this fact. It was in recognition of this that the old national authority placed a high premium on it: “,,,,though tribes and tongues may differ, in brotherhood we stand”.

As leaders continue to emerge, the best way to identify them as good or bad leaders is their reaction during crisis. They can also be identified in the way they respond to criticism. As Harry Truman would say: “Handling criticism if it’s untrue, disregard it; if it is unfair, keep from irritation; if it is ignorant, smile; if it’s justified, learn from it”.

Good leadership is based on trust and principles and should be by example. For right example is contagious and induces imitation.

When a leader leads by right examples he will earn respect and loyalty. And even if he falls short on occasions, his good example will put him on an invincible position. No one can accuse him of hypocrisy.wp_posts