RESPONSIVE LEADERSHIP AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

AN UNENDING QUEST

Abstract

The results of paucity of good governance and irresponsible leadership in Nigeria, five decades after independence, are glaring. Nigeria is presently faced with several problems bordering on violent conflicts, poverty and economic underdevelopment, diseases such as HIV-AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and bad governance, among others. It has been observed that, compared to other nations about five decades ago, Nigeria presently lags behind in economic growth attainments. This has been attributed to the lack of responsible leadership in the polity. Most Nigerian leaders are rather self-serving. They distribute favors to cronies rather than providing platforms for individual entrepreneurships. Few examples of countries that have developed a tradition of responsible leadership since the late 1960s such as Botswana and Mauritius, have consistently delivered high quality governance to their people. Both governments have sought to promote free and fair elections, rule of law systems, and tolerance of free expressions. The Paper shall adopt the stakeholder theory. The paper argued that Nigeria is in dire need of visionary and responsible leaders who will motivate and mobilize the nation’s human and materials resources towards nation building. Our paper’s source of data was drawn essentially from secondary sources involving books, journals; articles on the subject matter under review. Data sourced will be qualitatively analyzed using the descriptive method of data analysis and qualitative reporting.