Chanting songs in praise of an oppressive leader: A reading of Gloria Ernest Samuel’s <i>The Beautiful Masquerade</i>

Abstract

Nigeria, the supposedly giant of Africa in recent times has demonstrated that its fragile democracy is really challenged by many problems. The increasing rate of poverty, insecurity and other social and political problems in the country is a pointer that the citizens are yet to benefit from the huge human and material resources domiciled within her enclave. This development has given rise to much tension in the country’s polity. Sycophancy is one of the many contributors to the many problems challenging the development of the Nigerian nation. The main objective of this work therefore is to examine the effect of sycophancy on the leader and the citizen as represented in the play “The Beautiful Masquerade by Gloria Ernest- Samuel. Using content analysis, the paper explores the devastating effect of sycophancy and advocates that constructive criticism is more beneficial for a progressive leadership because sycophancy beclouds the vision of leader.