In the famous and widely sold William
Shakespeare’s play titled ‘Julius Caesar’, which was named after one of the
protagonists in the play, it was the Roman dictator King Julius Caesar who
disappointedly exclaimed in Latin “Et tu, Brute?”, meaning literally ‘Even you,
Brutus?’ or ‘You too, Brutus?’ the moment he discovered that one of those whom
wanted him dead happened to be his protégé and trusted ally in the person of
Marcus Brutus.
The last time I checked, the
reign of several well celebrated leaders in the past was truncated owing to the
invariable insincere gestures or eulogies showcased by most of those they
recognized as their friends or brothers, as may be the case. This is the reason
any leader who actually intends to excel must be extremely conscious of such
societal lifestyle commonly known as sycophancy which I invariably addressed as
a monster.
In
any leadership setting or in life generally, there are factors that tend to be
symbiotic. Among them are tyranny and sycophancy which pervade every level of
governance. The combination of the two aforementioned phenomena, which are
dangerous to both institutions and countries, makes any leader blind to even conspicuous
pitfalls thereby making them seem miserable if they eventually fell.
There are two major classes of sycophants,
namely: genuine sycophants and mercenary or fake sycophants. The former have
inexhaustible capacity to be ‘happy slaves’ and to demean themselves in favour
of the master. Somehow, suchlike individuals or followers are at best
Spartan-like in the sense that they do not feel the pain inflicted on them and
liable to be dehumanized both morally and mentally.
Instead, they feel the pain
for the master, claiming that they are the master’s ‘shock absorber’, and usually
struggle to take pleasure at the suffering of those who incur the wrath of any
ongoing bad governance. In most occasions, they are likely to be more
unfriendly or cruel than the master. This set of sycophants would always make
effort to defend the interest of the boss regardless of the situation at hand.
On the contrary, the mercenary ones are
dangerous to the leader unknowingly to him, and they often play a very vital
role in the day-to-day running of the affected administration. They equally
possess the ability to play the ‘happy slaves’ role successfully, appear to
demean themselves, pretend not to possess minds of their own, and unabatedly
wear a happy physiognomy façade while sulking internally.
A fake sycophant is no doubt skilful in
warming his/her way into the bosom of the boss by studying closely the
weaknesses of the system and that of the master. Such an individual or
so-called ally has no scruples; rather, he/she is Machiavellian. He definitely
knows how to acquire access to power by ingratiating himself with the leader
via grant of an assortment of bribery or gratification to the right people,
flatteries, organized accusations against well-meaning followers or citizens as
well as unconditional shedding of crocodile tears.
Furthermore, a mercenary
sycophant is relentlessly very intelligent and clever in playing victim and
shifting blames. He is so skilled in manufacturing cum painting of misleading
services that the leader is often bamboozled by his purported loyalty. Such a follower
capitalizes any opportunity to betray the trust and overthrow the leader. In
other words, as such follower carries out or discharges his duties on a daily
basis, he endlessly looks forward to discovering or creating a loophole that
would serve as an advantage to his sinister motive.
The paramount challenge to any leader who
wishes to have sycophants is to distinguish between genuine and fake ones.
However, the bone of contention remains that harbouring sycophants is even more
detrimental to the leader in question than to the teeming followers,
irrespective of the circumstance. Hence, there’s no gain reiterating that any
sycophant, if discovered, deserves to be discarded without much ado because
they are all useless.
In most occasions, you would notice that
these sycophants are allies who usually appear to be extremely hardworking and
creative, but realistically they are doing virtually nothing. They often use
noisemaking or exaggeration to create awareness thereby luring unsuspecting
followers into their net.
It’s noteworthy that sycophancy or undue praise-singing,
which is arguably the willing undertaker of any country’s socio-political lost
glory, seems to be taking an institutional presence or recognition in Nigeria
at large, particularly on the country’s political platform.
Isn’t it preposterous to see able-bodied citizens, even the old, singing
and dancing in praise of somebody who has only succeeded in impoverishing his
followers in the name of ‘leadership’ or consorting people’s aspirations to
chisel his/her self aggrandizement?
In Nigeria today, such manner
of nauseous lifestyle takes place with an embarrassing frequency, yet nobody
ostensibly cares to even acknowledge the colossal menace let alone discussing
it. Funnily enough, most leaders have the impetus to gloat about the unsavoury and
inglorious idiosyncrasy, even in a public sphere.
To be continued!
Comrade Fred Doc Nwaozor
Executive
Director, Docfred Resource Hub (DRH) - Owerri
__________________________________
frednwaozor@gmail.com
Twitter: @mediambassador 
