- 期刊
- OpenAccess
Beyond the Rhetorics of Statecraft in Africa: Searching for a New Paradigm of Leadership in Nigeria
並列摘要
Leadership question features most prominently in virtually all reported analyses, comments and interviews in the media, especially the print media. One thing that is evident is the recognition of leadership deficit as an important factor in understanding Africa and indeed Nigeria's predicament. Chinua Achebe, in ”The Trouble with Nigeria” identified leadership failure as the bane of development in Nigeria and by implication in most of Africa. As a matter of fact, even honest African leaders like the late Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), late Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), and Nelson Mandela (South Africa) had in the past pointed at the leadership malaise in development in the continent. This paper therefore examines leadership and governance in Nigeria within the framework of servant- leadership. We noted that for Nigeria to evolve a positive and focus leadership with morals, values and accountability, there is the need for selfless in the form of putting others above self in service delivery, which is the essence of servant-leadership. The creating of a culture of servant leader-leadership in Nigeria would mean the replacement of the top-bottom culture with one where attributes of servant-leadership as already identified flourish. It would require having in place a leadership that has ”worked well enough to be considered valid.” It is, therefore, an evidence of internalization of values and “a stabilizing force which creates social reality for its techniques for creating a culture of servant-leadership which is not possible except there is progress in evolving a team of servant-leaders.