- Kogi East’s political crisis is sustained by a culture of sycophancy that erodes democratic accountability and distorts representative governance. Political sycophants/actors who substitute loyalty to power for loyalty to the electorate have entrenched elite capture, weakened opposition, and hollowed out institutions.
Their operational model is simple: defend incumbency at all costs, suppress dissent, manipulate party structures, and trade public interest for personal access. This ecosystem thrives on patronage politics, godfatherism, and transactional alliances. Policy is replaced by propaganda; ideology is supplanted by opportunism. Electoral mandates are converted into private capital through rent-seeking, prebendalism, and influence peddling.
The result is a democratic deficit marked by underdevelopment, exclusion from the state’s power calculus, and chronic marginalization in inter-zonal bargaining.
Political sycophancy in Kogi East functions as an anti-democratic force multiplier. It fragments the grassroots, delegitimizes reformist voices, and normalizes mediocrity through elite consensus. Party primaries are stage-managed, internal democracy is subverted, and credible alternatives are neutralized by coercive loyalty tests. This is not pluralism; it is cartel politics.
A rupture is therefore inevitable. Political renewal requires replacing sycophancy with ideological competition, performance legitimacy, and programmatic clarity. Power must be re-anchored to the electorate through disciplined mobilization, strategic coalition-building, and institutional reform.
The metrics of relevance must shift from proximity to power to measurable outcomes: infrastructure delivery, fiscal responsibility, social investment, and effective representation.
Kogi East’s path forward demands confrontation with the status quo, not rhetorical accommodation. It requires dismantling patron-client networks, restoring internal party democracy, and enforcing accountability through civic pressure and electoral consequences. The political market must be de-monopolized; incumbency advantage must be contested; governance must be reclaimed.
In the final analysis, sycophancy is incompatible with democratic consolidation. Kogi East’s political future depends on replacing loyalty without substance with leadership grounded in competence, ideology, and public interest. The era of political flattery must end; the era of political consequence must begin.
Edison Atumeyi Edime
Political Activist & Youth Advocate
07068760054
