"I want people around me who will tell me the truth, who will tell me the truth as they see it. You cannot operate and manage effectively if you have people around you who put you on the pedestal and tell you everything you do is right because that, in practice, can't be possible". Harry Truman

This week, the Nigerian political elite will be compelled to make an important decision with far reaching implications for the survival of our democracy. By the time the weekend the heavy cloud hanging over the polity since the President went AWOL nearly eighty days ago today, would have dispersed, or become ticker with unpleasant implications for the nation.

The foibles that portend a gloomy future for our democracy are legion: we have the unbridled ascendency of mediocrity in all the corridors of power and the serial betrayal of the national interest by selfish elites and the intelligentsia. We also have the cultural capitulation by custodians of our highest societal values; religious pervasion and abuse by those whose duty it is to interpret the words of God; and, of course, the criminal docility of the led in the fatal neglect of their civic responsibilities.

We are confronted with arguably the most dangerous political crises the nation has experienced since democracy returned to these shores after a lengthy coup-strewn hiatus in 1999. At the root of the crises is the fact that the President has been absent from his duty post for nearly eighty days now without fulfilling the necessary constitutional obligations required of him.

His absence has badly affected the smooth functioning of the state. Important appointments have been delayed. The Niger Delta peace process has stalled. For a sovereign nation, and a responsible member of the international community, it is highly distressing to contemplate that our government officials have no access to their leader without clearance from Saudi security agents, while a tiny cabal with a misguided sense of loyalty to the Nigerian state operate the affairs of state with the facade of normality.

Those who posit that there is a vacuum in the presidency do not even know the meaning of the word. The obvious constitutional breech may suggest that a void exists on paper, but in reality, some individuals we never elected continue to exercise presidential powers by proxy for almost three months! The situation is better likened to a coup the accompanying protocols. No one bothered to serenade us with martial music, or assault our sensibilities with a usual lengthy justification speech.

My fear is that given .the obvious 'provocation', and the delay in invoking constitutional provisions the situation could be exploited for different reasons. Genuine patriots and democrats may keep knocking on the arrogant wall of defiance erected around the presidency. Our severely bruised national pride may be too much for patriots with more than a passing interest on the obvious violation of sovereignty and the sanctity of the Presidency to swallow. That is not to mention undemocratic forces that may be emboldened to 'correct' the anomaly by any means necessary for their selfish interests.

History has consistently shown that whenever nations experience the sort of crises confronting Nigerians presently, truth has always been the first casualty.

And because they are economical with the truth, the simple task of interpreting relevant portions of the constitution in this impasse has become rocket science.

Their flawed understanding of the essence of loyalty in the democratic space is further aggravated by the proliferation of sycophancy in the corridors of power. But how do we differentiate between loyalty and sycophancy in this dispensation? The distinction is important because a thin line divides the two.

The pedestrian definition of loyalty relates to our personal devotions, sentiments, or attachment to particular objects, which could be an individual like Umar Musa Yar'Adua. In political terms, it connotes devotion and identification with group or community interests. The essence of loyalty in the latter instance invariably includes conformity with the norms of the community or state institutions, their basic laws, political ideals, and even general policy objectives.

The political dinosaurs that have made hard work of enforcing our constitutional provisions on this matter have clearly failed to make the distinction between loyalty to Yar'Adua the President, and the document they swore to uphold! Their betrayal is the clearest manifestation of symptoms of extreme disloyalty to the state in any democratic dispensation.

Wherever sycophants prevail, meritocracy retreats as a direct consequence. The situation breeds mediocrity with catastrophic consequences for effective national development. Sycophants probably urged IBB to annul the June 12 Presidential elections in 1992. They may have been behind the thinly veiled attempt by late General Abacha to transmute into a civilian President in 1998, and were surely full element when Obasanjo embarked on his tenure elongation misadventure in 2006.

That aside, I refuse to join the ranks of those who have rushed to celebrate the gesture of Information Minister, Dora Akunyili, for breaking ranks with her colleagues in the FEC on the lingering crisis on the transfer of power the Vice President Jonathan Goodluck, last week. I have no quarrels with the Minister achieved at NAFDAC, but beyond her tenure at the agency, her other credentials hardly qualifiers absolves her from blame in the unfolding drama.

Akunyili supported Obasanjo's tenure elongation project; rabidly defended the rape of the electoral process in 2007, and proceeded to accept appointment in a government with a questionable mandate. The same person now wants to be taking seriously for preaching the virtues of political decency to her peers in the political class of infamy.

While treachery may be too strong a word to describe her political 'rebellion', like Obasanjo, she also has her credibility problems. Was she emboldened by privileged information garnered on the degree of the President's incapacitation? Was she scheming for an even bigger role in government once the Vice President becomes the President?

Akunyili's motives may be questionable, but we cannot ignore afford to ignore her message in our quest for effective national development. Loyalty to the constitution must be superior to our allegiance to individuals it empowers. We need to be vigilant in that respect.

That explains why the belated solidarity visit of former leaders, and eminent Nigerians to the VP, last week hardly resonated with me. The same people were deafening in their silence when OBJ embarked on his third term folly and proceeded to foist a sick presidential candidate on us in 2007! If they had shown the same commitment to democratic values back then, perhaps we would not be at this sorry pass today. But all that now belongs to history.

For now, as the politicians in the NASS and the FEC, condemned by destiny to navigate our present constitutional crises strewn with lethal Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) meet this week, my prayer is that they exhibit sufficient decorum, and patriotism. They must overcome primordial sentiments in the collective national interest.