Reflections Without Mirror by Niyi Aborisade

Anyone or any leader who surrounds himself with sycophants and listen to them in making decision is doomed.  A good leader should or ought to be aware that he is responsible  for any decision he makes and must ensure that he surrounds himself with wise  and intelligent people . Don’t you know that bad company corrupts good manner.

A good leader needs people who can look at him in the eyes and tell him the truth and not  sycophants. How many of our leaders can claim to have surrounded themselves with those who can tell them the truth.

I first heard the word ‘sycophants’ from a friend who was a journalist with one popular newspapers about three decades ago. He just graduated from University of Lagos having studied political science. The popular newspaper was his first employer who trained him to be a journalist.  On that day, I slept in his house at Lagos and  they were talking about some of their friends in the same industry that were collecting money from politicians to write good things about them and portrayed them in a positive ways. That my friend later resigned from that newspaper was a testament to his principle not to get himself in the racket that was going on in the Fourth Estate.  He now lives in Canada and a very successful business man. I was an Artist at that time and so when I returned to Ibadan the second day, I  searched for the word ‘ sycophant’ in the dictionary and this is what I found ” a person who acts obsequiously towards someone important in order  to gain advantage. ” it also means a servile self seeking flatterer. In my own simple definition, a sycophant is a person who practices deception to gain advantage from an important person. Or what is the meaning of calling someone what he is not just to gain advantage of that person.  One is not a sycophant if you genuinely believe in something though you may be sincerely wrong on what you praise  as long as it is not to take advantage of that person.  If you genuinely believes Okocha is better than Messi  and you sing or write something about it without any intent to gain anything from Okocha, you are not a sycophant. For those who genuinely believes in any of the presidential candidates without intent to make personal gain, you are not guilty and you are not a sycophant afterall sincere people can be sincerely wrong.

One aspects of our culture in the nation called Nigeria that is not helping our society that I’ll recommend  we should  dispense with,  is ‘sycophancy’.  Some years ago, I  heard late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister praising one man as (‘ eyin fun jowo , aponbepore, Oloju  Paul Rossi, elese Maradona “)  Lovely set of teeth like money, fair skin like red oil, eyes like that of Paul Rossi and Maradona feet. It turned out to be that the person did not reflect the accolades poured on him by the King and Founder of Fuji music but the aim was to let him part with his money and he must have spent fortune on the late Fuji King of course.

 Commander Ebenezer Obey in a song dedicated to Ejigbadero sang (ko le ye won bi Gbadero se n logba leko, leko, ko le ye won bi Gbadero se nlogba leko,  asiri eko ko le tu loju ewe —E ni binu Gbadero a lo s’odo Lowe,  eja nla a yo ju re je ) they can not understand how Gbadero is living his time well in Lagos, the secret of cold pap will not be unravelled  before the leaf— any one who is angry over Gbadero success, if he goes to the river to swim, may big fish remove his eyes.  Well, the people eventually understood how Ejigbadero was living well in Lagos when Ejigbadero was arraigned for murder of a  owner of a land to gain advantage of that land. Gbadero was successful on blood money, there are many famous people that their source of wealth are very dark.

We in Nigeria placed much emphasis on success and wealth, ignoring the source of that wealth or success. It was part of our culture for the praise singers to call people and praised them to the level that they have not reached in life and called them what they are not. ( Oyinbo elepo) Oil baron for someone that has never even work in oil industry and it appears we like to be deceived too.

The Sycophants are everywhere in this country  but it is very common amongst the politicians who surrounds those that are in power.

When I was in primary Four,  in one of our English books   I read the interesting story of one clever character, a kind of  fraudster but there was a bit that has to do with sycophants. The name of the fraudster was Ali and the title of the passage that is of interest to this piece is ‘ *Ali and the Angel* ‘.

Ali claimed that he was visited by an angel and he told the king that the angel left a beautiful garment with him which he desired to give the king. However, there was a caveat, in that only the righteous people can see the garment . The king himself could not see the garment but he did not want to appear like unrighteous person before the people and so he pretended to have collected the garment from Ali and there was a kind of demonstration of putting the garment on.  When he emerged from the Palace, all his Chiefs and Merchant’s could not see anything save the King’s underwear but the exclaimed ‘ *how beautiful it is!! How wonderful it is !!.* These they said because they don’t want to appear unrighteous before the king and the people and they desired to make the King happy and they wanted to remain in the good book of the king and therefore failed to tell him the truth. It was the King’s wife that eventually told him the truth by scratching him with her ring so that he can know he was almost naked.

In Nigerian politics, truth is scarce,  the followers of the president and the governors and those who are benefitting including  those who want to benefit from them are unable to tell them the truth.  It is therefore unsurprising that many of our leaders cannot see what we are seeing, some of them are no longer in touch with reality. They are surrounded by sycophants who are feeding them lies everyday,  who are calling evil good, telling them it is well when it is not well. My interrraction with those who are very close to some of our leaders have confirmed my fear in this area. They told me they cannot tell them the truth if they want to continue in their position.

The sycophants are the evil of our society,  the politicians use them to package lies, dressed it in beauty garments for sale to the public. The politicians pay musicians handsomely to package and sell them, they are using the Fourth Estate to spin lies and the religious leaders are not left out in this dirty business. When we see all these signs  , let us open our eyes , let us refuse to buy lies regardless of who spins it.

Chief, Mathematical Segun Odegbami was one the best footballers that Nigeria ever produced. At one time he captained the Super Eagles, his name is in hall of fames of shooting stars, he had a very good track record of scoring goals,in the 70s and 80s, uncle sege was known throughout Nigeria and beyond. But can he play football or  captain the Super Eagles  now despite his good reputation in the round leather game. The spirit may be willing indeed but the flesh is weak. At best he can be a coach watching those that he trained to do what he taught them. Let the reader understand.  There are those who do not have good track record but engaged the sycophants to dress them in white garment. Let the reader understand as well.

Our situation is very precarious . May the almighty God intervene in Nigeria, all the roads look rough but change We must.