By Osazua IVBAZE
Let us start this discourse with a very simple experiment. Put a cube of sugar on the ground anywhere in front of your house.
Leave it there for about 5-10 minutes.
It is that day you may know there are ? ants all over your compound. The little cube of sugar soon becomes the centre and source of enjoyment for ants, cramping around the cube and taking their lick.
That is the nature of political power—it draws people— friends, both fake and real and all shades of character to itself. Those who wield unlimited powers over other people’s lives do not commit their acts of atrocity alone- they have willing accomplices, urging them on.
Those who are feeding fat on a rotten system see nothing wrong; they see no evil and when their attention is drawn to one ,by others who muster the courage to speak truth to power, they are branded saboteurs and enemies of state.
Truth is that sycophants know what is wrong , but they are blinded by pursuit of personal dividends and for this selfish purpose, become hallelujah boys around wielders of Power. Their songs and the lyrics therein erect a thick wall between the leaders and realities on the other side.
Going through the pages of history, we have found that sycophants who follow evil leaders , do so ,because they know that complicity is the path to influence and wealth.
Those who were used by Abacha to create five different political parties, that would have adopted him as a consensus candidate in his self – transmutation project to civilian president, were Nigerians
These people knew what they did was evil but the drive for self gratification overwhelmed other considerations. They knew the Parties they created were according to Bola Ige “ five fingers on a leprous hand”
Who was the leprous hand?
What about Idi Amin of Uganda;, Pol Pot of Cambodia; Hitler of Germany; Stalin of Russia; Sadam Hussein of Iraq ; Ivan the Terrible – the first Tsar of Russia, Torquemada the Spanish Inquisitor including our own Abacha!!
What was common among them ?
They had immense followers.
Despite their unpredictability, they had people who followed their baser instincts— because from that complicit followership , they acquired influence and had their hands greased.
Most stupid leaders, inebriated by the aroma of power never really get to appreciate that their best friends are those who constructively draw their attention to their mistakes or missteps . They only get to know that sycophants were actually the enemies they needed to avoid after their exit from power.
In 1975, after he was ousted in a coup, Gowon told the world that he was misled by his advisers.
Shortly after Jonathan was defeated by Buhari in 2015 polls, his hitherto political godfather, EK Clark, who fenced out the Obasanjos from the Presidency said;
“ Jonathan was too weak to fight corruption “
And yet, he was one of those who harvested bountifully from Jonathan’s Government.
And recently Jonathan, in a moment of introspection , told the world that soon after you leave power, those that used to come around you while in the saddle, would be nowhere to be found. They have moved on in search of another cube of sugar.
President Buhari may realize, after 2023, that some of his critics ,did a better job than the Lai Muhammeds.
