A Senate President’s sycophancy: Godswill Akpabio at his fawning best

• There is a reason why the principle of separation of power is an intrinsic element of democracy, especially for nations like Nigeria that practices the presidential system of government

Around the world, politicians are known to engage in activities or make decisions rooted in self-interest and self-preservation. It’s an unspoken rule of politics which has been in place since the creation of man. They often posture as a selfless populist who wants the best for the people, but even this façade and charade are quietly ditched once they become an albatross to their political goals.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of how Nigerian politics work will know that flattery and sycophancy are two potent weapons of Nigerian politicians. They deploy them adroitly to advance their interest and wield them shamelessly to achieve their political goals. They have also baked them into our politics and governance.

No one exemplifies the entrenchment and pervasion of sycophancy in our polity than the current Senate president, Godswill Akpabio. Akpabio seems to have a problem of conflating deference and respect for the office of the presidency with jarring ob​se​qui​ousness for the president. Many people are, of course, not expecting Akpabio’s leadership of the red chamber to be similar to the forthright, clearheaded, unyielding and uncompromising 8th Senate led by the irrepressible former governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki, which held fire to the feet of the executive on issues of governance and truly exemplified what separation of power is.

From the election that produced him as the president to his swearing-in, Akpabio left no one in doubt as to what kind of Senate president he would be and how he would lead the legislative chamber. He made it clear that he would be a pliant and amenable leader of the Senate who would do, without hesitation and questioning, what President Bola Tinubu wanted. No sooner did he become the Senate president than he turned the red chamber into a palace full of courtiers fawning over the king — Tinubu. During the 2024 budget presentation, the Joint session of the national assembly chorus with fervour the political chant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that idolises Tinubu and assures him of their support — on your mandate, we stand.

What makes Akpabio’s unabashed sycophancy disturbing is his utter lack of situational awareness and disregard for optics. He has this predilection for turning mere social function into political shindig. This proclivity of his was again on full display during the commissioning of the 30-kilometre Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project. When he stepped on the podium, he donned his sycophantic robe and launched into a cringe-worthy and clownish adulation of Tinubu. What even made this irritating spectacle and the previous ones more worrisome is his penchant to misrepresent facts on the unsettling state of the nation, to downplay or even dismiss the harsh economic reality and general hardship that Nigerians are grappling with under the current administration.

There is a reason why the principle of separation of power is an intrinsic element of democracy, especially for nations like Nigeria that practices the presidential system of government. It is to ensure that the three arms of government — executive, judiciary and legislature — are independent of one another and, through checks and balances mechanisms, ensure that the actions, decisions and movement of each other are within the ambit of the law and do not undermine democracy. It appears our darling Senate President is oblivious to this basic structure of government or just does not care. We understand the need to show loyalty and fealty to the president, who played a crucial role in his emergence as the nation’s number three citizen, but he must also understand that his obeisance to the president cannot be paid by undermining our nascent and fragile democracy. He must also remember that there are certain expectations of him from his constituents and truckling before President Tinubu at every given opportunity isn’t one of them