When Praise Becomes Poison: The Economic Cost Of Eye-Service Appointees -By Isaac Asabor

In the corridors of power, truth is often the first casualty. More perilous, however, is when a non-performing leader surrounds himself or herself with a coterie of sycophantic appointees whose loyalty is not to the people, not to progress, not to truth, but to their own selfish survival. These individuals, known in common parlance as “eye service” appointees, are masters in the art of deception, skilled not in governance but in theatrics, singing praises while the roof is caving in.

Eye service, by definition, is the pretentious display of commitment or competence when under scrutiny, especially in the presence of a superior. In governance, it manifests in a more dangerous form: window dressing that creates a false sense of progress, suppresses critical feedback, and promotes cosmetic solutions to deeply entrenched problems. When a leader who lacks performance capacity is encircled by such appointees, the damage inflicted on a nation’s economy can be catastrophic and long-lasting.

A non-performing leader, already disconnected from grassroots realities, becomes even more detached when those around them filter every piece of information through the lens of sycophancy. Reports of hardship are repackaged into tales of resilience. Alarming statistics are sanitized or buried. Failures are painted as successes, and challenges are framed as the birth pangs of a “greater tomorrow” that never arrives.

This curated reality creates an echo chamber where only positive feedback is permitted to flourish. Any voice of reason or dissent is either silenced or labeled as antagonistic. As a result, the leader begins to believe his or her own myth, a dangerous delusion that often fuels reckless policy decisions. By the time the economic damage becomes too visible to hide, it is already too late.

The bureaucracy plays a pivotal role in any functioning government. But when infested with eye service appointees, bureaucracy transforms into a bottleneck of false reports and skewed priorities. Budgets are inflated for projects that exist only on paper. Reports are doctored to impress, not inform. Internal audits are reduced to rituals. Performance evaluations become a farce, based more on loyalty than on measurable outcomes.

This environment becomes a breeding ground for institutional decay. Policies, no matter how well intended, fail to gain traction because their implementation is left in the hands of individuals more concerned with optics than substance. In such settings, even international investors take flight, wary of the opaque systems and misleading data that signal a lack of seriousness in leadership.

When economic planning is based on lies, it collapses like a house of cards. Eye service appointees paint rosy pictures to hide systemic problems: spiraling inflation is blamed on global trends alone, rising unemployment is waved off as “transitional,” and food insecurity is chalked up to seasonal fluctuations. Meanwhile, the purchasing power of the average citizen plummets, businesses shut down, and desperation becomes widespread.

Macroeconomic indicators, GDP growth, inflation rates, public debt levels, are easily manipulated on spreadsheets, but not in real life. The market always finds a way to reveal the truth. When the economic narratives pushed by appointees no longer match what the masses experience daily, trust in institutions erodes. Citizens grow disillusioned, not just with the leader but with governance itself. This erosion of confidence often precipitates a cycle of unrest, further crippling economic activity.

In fact, eye service fosters a toxic culture where no one wants to rock the boat. Innovation dies in such an atmosphere. New ideas are either killed or delayed because they are seen as threats to the status quo or as criticisms of existing failures. Talented technocrats are sidelined in favor of flatterers. Consequently, the system becomes stagnant, repeating old mistakes while expecting different results.

Surprisingly, economic reforms require courage, data, and brutal honesty. But in an environment dominated by eye service, honesty is a liability. Reforms that could pull the economy out of the doldrums are sacrificed at the altar of political correctness and personal survival. The status quo is preserved, not because it works, but because it is safe for those benefitting from the rot.

At the end of the day, the cost of all this deception is not abstract. It is measured in human suffering, families who cannot afford three meals a day, youths who roam the streets jobless, pensioners who die waiting for their entitlements, students who learn in dilapidated classrooms, patients who die due to lack of drugs in public hospitals. This is the human face of economic mismanagement fueled by eye service.

A non-performing leader, if honestly advised, might have a chance at redemption. But when flattered and misled by appointees who care more about job security than national prosperity, they become a liability to the very people they were chosen to serve. The leader may live in denial, but the people pay the price, daily, painfully, and often irreversibly.

The antidote to this governance disease lies in building a culture of accountability, transparency, and meritocracy. Leaders must learn to listen to unfiltered truth, even when it hurts. Appointees must be selected based on competence, not praise-singing abilities. Internal checks and balances must be institutionalized, not personalized.

Furthermore, leaders must be courageous enough to fire those who prioritize their own survival over the nation’s progress. It is not just about surrounding oneself with people; it is about surrounding oneself with the right people, those who are not afraid to tell hard truths, those who can say “no” when “yes” would mean national disaster.

Leadership is not a popularity contest; it is a responsibility. A non-performing leader is bad enough, but a non-performing leader surrounded by eye-service appointees is a tragedy waiting to happen. It is akin to a blind man being guided by the deaf, the journey is bound to end in a ditch.

The economy is not a stage for propaganda. It responds to policy, data, and reality, not to staged media parades or falsified reports. A nation can only progress when truth is the foundation of governance, and truth can only thrive when those in power are not afraid to hear it.

In the final analysis, eye service does more than kill the truth, it kills the economy, strangles innovation, and drowns the hopes of millions. And history has never been kind to leaders who chose flattery over facts.