Political Sit Tight Syndrome By Livy-Elcon Emereonye

There is something peculiar among many people in position authority – and that is the desire to hold tight unto power beyond the legal term(s). It is certain that many people can do anything to perpetuate themselves in office and many abominable things have been done in this regard. Many would prefer to die in office than to live and see someone succeed them. But why?

Give a man power and his true character would come out to limelight. Those who are promoted above their abilities would abuse everything and all things with impunity, and the fear of answering for their actions and inactions outside office would force them to sit tight and “remain” in office long after they would have left. In other words, the fear of a private life being made a public discuss and scrutiny can make one want to die in office – and many have actually died in office yet life goes on!

Against the rule of play in a constitutional democracy, some become tyrants and absolute rulers; instead of obeying the dictates of a tenurized government, they sit tight and manipulate everything for their advantage, giving birth to Political Sit Tight Syndrome (PSTS) with its associated consequences!

The paraphernalia of office can be very tempting and it has led many into temptation – and the beasts in human clothing succumb to it, sometimes with a stain of blood. Everyone with erroneous belief and abuse of power makes a mess of it. It leads to abuse of power which can become absolute with minions, sycophants and selfish-wicked political jobbers around. It is often difficult to survive the lies of hypocrites that specialize in telling the rule that his evil is good and his worst outing remains the best.

Power has ways of manipulating the senses. Absolute power can make one lose control and thereafter lose his life for absolutism is a way of perdition.

When one is surrounded by minions that play sycophantic politics for stomach infrastructure, his sense of reason can easily be polluted and manipulated for selfish gains; when out of greed one wants to have the world in his pocket, his conscience would suffer and thereafter be murdered; whenever someone in position of authority begins to put much hope in esoterical mystical powers, he distorts his mentality and becomes a victim of idiotic complex that would make him believe that he is omnipotent and all powerful – and this leads only to destruction.

See he who stained his hands with blood for power and you would have seen the villain with foot of clay. Absolute rulers are cowards; tyrants live in perpetual fear; but the evil that men do live with, and after, them. There is no hiding place for atrocities committed on earth. Every secret is made open and public with time. The revelation of every wicked secret could feed the urge revenge, the act of which might lead to more, worse destruction.

In the affairs of men, there’s always a tide – and some would deliberately swim against it to prove a point. In pursuit of power, absolute power, morality is thrown to the dogs. It’s always common interest that gets thinner with the acquisition of power. Power in the hand of a wrong person is worse than the worst pandemic ever witnessed by mankind. Anyone with wrong view and perception of power will do anything with it – and often they tread on the path of ignominy. To cover up this, “sit-tight syndrome” is not only an option but it is consciously and deliberately embraced with intoxication and madness.

There are many ways one can plan to perpetuate oneself in office and they include but not limited to:

Tinkering with the constitution for self succession is a common but dangerous trend amongst despots. Cases abound of military heads of state that came into power through coup transforming into civilian presidents after tinkering with the “constitution” to serve their interests – and some of them tried to become life presidents thereafter but met their waterloo and vanished like puff of smoke.

Government by proxy is another dangerous trend amongst selfish-wicked rulers. It happens, oftentimes, that those who abused offices but for one thing or the other could not extend their stay in office would do everything within their ability to install their “stooge” as a successor so as to remain in government by proxy. Some have actually succeeded at this however instances abound where such a “stooge” turned around to bite the finger that fed him and dealt rudely with the predecessor.

Revolution can also be a tool for tenure elongation. Some rulers have actually created chaos and turned around to use them to extend their days in office…

Abuse of power with raw exploitation of corruption is a prominent feature of political sit tight syndrome – and the players can stop at nothing in their dance of madness. With dead conscience, they destroy themselves in the process of destroying others, leaving behind painful memories with sorrow, tears and blood!

We should therefore preach against “sit-tight syndrome” and in doing so let it be known that no one is too important and indispensable. With a change of guard, comes the change of loyalty – and with this those who connived to produce a despot would likely stop at nothing in destroying him in the interplay of double standard and game of political relevance!