By Ehichioya Steve Odion
It has become a common practice amongst Nigeria politicians especially those holding public offices to deliberately engage praise singers to divert public attention from critical issues of non performance.
The praise singers dressed in the garb of special assistants in sundry portfolios, like their forerunners in King's courts, sing the praises of their pay masters to high heavens.
They ascribe phony and audio accomplishments to the political office holders to earn their attention even when the singers' insincerity stare them in their faces.
Sycophancy can be described as an act of excessively and insincere flattering of someone, especially those in power, either to gain favour or advantage.
The motive behind the trade is for the griots to put a stamp of public acceptability to what ever the politicians do whether rightly or otherwise.
Conscience being what can only be nurtured by truth, the politicians are left with no iota of doubts that the singers only succeeds in leading them in borrowed robes. They know they do not deserve the accolades, the ululations and veneration.
Experience has shown that the same characters that praise sing today have the potency to condemn the same elite tomorrow when the table turns.
That is why there is need for political office holders to be focused and do what he feels will be good for the people, because he shall get the rewards or curses alone after his tenure in office.
The target amongst these office holders by praise singers or sycophants are Presidents, Governors, local government chairmen etc.
You will agree with me that these sycophants are mainly those working directly with such office holders. For example the Ministers from the presidency and Commissioners working with the governors and other special advisers in the three tiers of government, including those at the local government level that have a permanent song titled 'chair' that usually rent the air at every event.
Even the President and Governors sometimes directly involved in sycophancy by praising themselves unnecessarily. Recently, Governor Monday Okpebholo in one of his outings personally told the people that someone told him that his performance in the few months he has spent in office have supercede the immediate past governor, Godwin Obaseki's eight years as governor of Edo State.
The above is one of the highest propaganda and inordinate self praise of the year 2025. Even governor Monday Okpebholo knows that that particular person in question was just doing that to give him praises he did not deserve or realistic at the moment.
The reason why Presidents and Governors now marked 100 days in office is simply because they know that the electorate has lost confidence in their ability to deliver on their electoral promises due to corruption that have enveloped governance. That is why in an attempt to meet the expectations of the people within the period of the 100 days in office they begin to commission projects that will not stand the test of time.
In the first case, I don't think there is need for political office holders to engage in any competition. To my own knowledge I have not heard or seen where the electorate give targets to our politicians. Rather, they are the ones promising heaven and earth while also giving themselves time line to execute and complete such projects, thereby putting themselves under pressure.
As I focus on Edo State particularly, let me recount the periods of the former governors of Bendel State, Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia and Prof. Ambrose Alli of blessed memories. For those who witnessed the periods of these two illustrious sons of Edo State knew the real meaning of governance. Their own combine Edo and Delta states where two governors are struggling to govern today without being able to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.
To crown it all the developmental projects the two governors executed in their various tenure are all still on ground till date and serving the purposes they were established for.
That is the reason till date people keep talking about their legacies they left behind and no governor after them have been able to break their records and we may not see anyone that will equally break their records in the near future looking the corruption that is smelling amongst office holders in the country these days.
The main reasons those two illustrious sons of ours succeeded during their time, they were very focused and they were not surrounded by sycophants as we have them today. But these days you see people hailing the governor whether he is doing well or not. Those people just see that as their jobs and the governor recognized that and pays them handsomely for it.
Those periods Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia and Professor Ambrose Alli judiciously used the allocations they were receiving from the Federal Government with the internal generated revenue purely for the development of the state. Unlike today where governors across the country used allocations and the internal generated revenues to hold political rallies and gathering without accountability.
But today sycophancy is impacting negatively on governance in the country. Politicians now see sycophancy as a profession in politics which includes telling lies to deceive the people with far reaching consequences on the welfare of the populace most of whom have been impoverished through the mismanagement of public resources.
So, for any political office holder who really plans to succeed in governance, especially Presidents and Governors must be focused and ensure he surrounds himself with those who are equally focused to help him deliver on his electioneering promises. They should not listen to those sycophants whose mission is to achieve their selfish aims not caring whether you fail or succeed.
Therefore, the governor of Edo State is strongly advised to shun all sorts of sycophants and propagandists and be focused in order to emulate the successes recorded by Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia and Professor Ambrose Alli of blessed memories.
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