Now that the
euphoria of electoral victory is over and with some days to the inauguration
ceremony, the President-elect and Governors-elect should take a deep breath on
the challenges of sycophancy in our system.
As William
Shakespeare succinctly opined ‘give every man thy ear but few thy voice. Take
each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment’.
The greatest impediment
to our political and economic development is sycophancy. There is no way a
leader can sincerely gauge the feeling and sensitivities of the people, if
those closest to the corridors of power shy away from telling the hard truths. While
the buck stops at the leaders table, every member of government is a direct
stakeholder. In the era of social media, propaganda must go with performance on
ground, which has bearing on the people and the environment.
When a leader
allows sycophancy to take over his sense of direction and sense of
responsibilities, the fundamental challenge is that the large majority of the people
will suffer for it. Sycophancy and eye service kills governance. No society,
State or nation can be enriched through it.
The purpose
of meetings, especially Executive Meetings is to exchange ideas and arrive at
sound decisions to deliver good governance to society. It is therefore, not a crime to speak truth
and do so objectively, if not, the system will be reduced to directives, which
is the beginning of autocracy. An executive meeting that is not stimulating
during sessions arising from sycophancy will lose its worth and significance, the
Chief Executive will lose faith in the council and downgrade
it.
At the State
level, once that happens, government policies and decisions will begin to emanate
from outside the system. It is here that copying of projects and programmes of
other States without due consideration to local relevance and need becomes the vogue, because
the domestic system no longer generate ideas for running government. Copying of
projects of other States without due consideration for the local relevance and demand, create disconnection and distortions.
Government should
also be mindful of the promises and commitments they make. Government should not over hype promises, thereby accelerating the
peoples hopes. Government cannot do all things at once. All that a government
needs to do is set out priorities with targets, strictly based on disciplined completion
timelines. This does not preclude individuals and communities from making
demands on government.
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