Leadership has been defined as the process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. It is also the process of influencing subordinates to accomplish specific goals and objectives by providing them advice, direction, encouragement, feedback, motivation, support, and training. Dagacci (2009) defines leadership as “actors who create, implement, and interpret a set of laws that are binding on existing social institution and are based on a state’s role”. In conceptualising leadership, it needs to be emphasised that the etymology of the word “leader” connotes a person who embodies the wishes and aspirations of the persons being led.’
Leadership is in short supply in all sectors of Nigeria, with it being most acute in political leadership. Poor leadership has been the depressing norm in Africa political space, with the continent saddled with poor and even malevolent leadership, predatory kleptocrats, military installed autocrats, economic illiterates, and puffed up posturers. One thing that is peculiar with African leaders is that they make policy statements without policy actions that affect the people positively or bring about the desired change. Many African leaders have or are committing crime against humanity. Despite their abundant natural resources, Africans are suffering from hunger on a daily basis simply because of leaders who are greedy and do not serve selflessly. We find ourselves asking such question like: “Why do African leaders fail their constituents or members so consistently in politics, business, and elsewhere”?
Challenges of Effective Leadership in Africa
The failure of those who have overseen the affairs of the people since the 1960s when most African countries attained independence have been attributed as one of the major factors responsible for the continued crisis in the continent. In Nigeria, the lack of effective leadership is at the centre of the country’s current predicament. Most Nigerian/African leaders have through their acts of commission or omission displayed a high level of irresponsibility and insensitivity. Barack Obama once asserted that, “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions”. However, since independence, what we have seen in the continent are strongmen rulers who have fast-tracked the virtual breakdown of all institutional structures of their states. Many African states have fallen into disrepair, currency have depreciated, and prices have inflated dramatically while job availability, education standards, general security, healthcare, and life expectancy have declined.
Chinua Achebe in 1983 observed that the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership and the unwillingness or inability of Nigerian leaders to rise to the hallmark of true leadership. There are many factors that are affecting effective leadership in the African continent, some of which include:
Corruption: Endemic corruption continues to militate against effective leadership in Nigeria and the African continent as a whole. Corruption permeates every sector of the Nigerian economy, with the worse of it manifested in the succession of the kleptocratic government, which Nigeria runs. According to Professor Adeyeye as cited in Yusuf (2009), “what we have in Nigeria is a corruptocracy…a government for the corrupt and by the corrupt…And in that kind of government, there are no rule as to how everything goes”. While most leaders keep blaming past administration for corrupt practices, the question is: if corruption has been identified as the flaw of past leaders, what stop the person in power from issuing a statement for the invitation and arrest of such leaders to account for their actions while in office? The truth is that corruption has become the order of the day in African politics, with some persons entering into politics simply as an avenue to acquire or amass wealth. Most leaders claim they want to fight corruption but they are only paying lip service to it. Leaders are no longer honest or accountable, with leadership no longer meaning sacrifice of time, resources, or energy given to one by God for the service of the people. There is no way a country can create wealth if those in power keep exploiting the economy to enrich themselves.
Religion, Tribalism, and Ethnicity: In Nigeria and other African countries, there is lack of unity because of tribal, ethnic, and religious conflicts. There is always the tendency of armed conflict in the continent as one religious or ethnic group always try to prove to be better than the other group and so better suited to rule the country.
Mind-set of Individuals: There is also the unwillingness of African leaders to rise to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership. If you are not prepared to make the hard decision in order to positively impact on the lives of the people, then leadership is not for you. How can a leader swimming in the affluence of public funds and state amenities command the obedience or respect of the citizens when he calls for austerity?
Challenge of Followership: One of the major challenge of the 21st century leadership in Africa is the need to build a critical mass of enlightened followers who can hold their leaders accountable for their misdeeds. In Nigeria like most African countries, the contradiction is that many among the general populate openly acknowledge that these leaders are not actually fit and proper persons to hold such exalted positions in the society yet they willingly align themselves with such rulers. The Nigerian society boasts of having some of the most enlightened, talented, widely travelled, religious, and educated people in Africa and even in the world. Quite a number of these individuals are widely acclaimed giants in their field of influence yet we cannot hold our leaders accountable. Are the leaders in Nigeria from space? Do they not come from our families, villages, states, and constituencies? It seems that members of the society are just waiting for the golden opportunity to ascend any political office so that he or she can mindlessly appropriate state or federal resources for self ends. You also hear people saying that even though they know this person is not fit to lead, they are just supporting the person so that the person currently in power can leave.
Other challenges include the fact that most African leaders are out of touch with the needs and sufferings of their people. There is also the lack of rule of law; electoral malpractices challenges; absence of transparency and accountability; and the absence of development-oriented leadership.
The Way Forward
It is an unfortunate development that the African continent, though abundantly blessed with natural, mineral, and human resources, have been beset with bad leaders whose rulership have successfully dragged the continent down to the depths of ignorance, poverty, inequality, and instability in all ramifications.
It is obvious that we have problems in our leadership pattern, and thus it is important to acquire historical education for solutions to our leadership challenges because no society can grow beyond the level of its educational system. Several recommendations have been provided to solve the problem of leadership in Africa and Nigeria and they include:
There is need for a total redefinition of the African psyche and society, coupled with effective educational and enlightenment systems that will free the entirety of the continent’s population of both the led and their rulers. Africa needs a new breed of leaders who will appreciate and understand the dictates of global politics and international diplomacy to effectively deal with war, crime, poverty, hunger, and diseases.
There is need to look towards the followers for a solution. We need enlightened and politically conscious followership desirous of change and who are willing to make the necessary sacrifice to bring this about. We need followers that are ready to stand up to inept, corrupt, and unenlightened rulers whose actions and inactions have kept Nigeria and Africa in their present state. Our historical experience has shown that the ruling class will not willingly surrender power in spite of their misrule but will rather continue in their misrule if left unchallenged. We therefore need critical followership that can act as check against inept rule. As followers, we must ensure that we vote for candidates on merits rather than party or tribal affiliation.
Furthermore, there is need to sanitise the political space. Through the instrumentality of the law, the qualifications of aspiring political office holders among other conditions should be increased. We must ensure that only that that have the right qualification both in character and learning should be allowed to contest for political positions.
All of these can be made possible because all Africans are unanimous in their desire to live together in peace and harmony with one another irrespective of ethnic origin, religion, or creed. We cherish peace and stability; we desire progress, justice, and the right atmosphere to live in unity.
Conclusion
The strength of every society is largely dependent on the quality of its leadership. All through history, successful societies are those whose leaders have been able to rise to the occasion to calm storms during crises and advance the course of prosperity during peacetime. Such leaders show selfishness, objectivity, integrity, accountability, openness, transparency, and are committed to rule of law, democracy, freedom, and human rights in their dealings with the people.
The truth is that no country can survive without leadership because the attainment of goals and objectives is dependent on effective leadership. Nevertheless, at this critical moment of global economic crises, Nigerians cannot afford the same old faces, the same old politics, the incompetence, the corruption, the nepotism, the ineffectivess, and the despotism. We cannot afford to remain poor in the abundance of natural resources. We must not rest until Nigeria becomes a country that caters for all its citizens and not just a few.
References
Achebe, C. (1984). The trouble with Nigeria. Nigeria: Heinemann Educational Books.
Akinola, G. A. (2009). Leadership and the Postcolonial Nigerian Predicament. Department of History, University of Ibadan.
Dagacci, A.M. (2009). Democracy and the leadership question: A redefinition in the Nigerian context. Lapai International Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 2(2), 17.
Remarks by the President (Barack Obama) to the Ghanaian Parliament on 11th July 2009.
Yusuf, A. (2009). We Run a Corruptocracy. Nigeria’s Independent Weekly,(TELL Magazine), 5.