Followership and Leadership Failure

A Theoretical Analyses of Follower-Based Impediments to Good Governance and National Development in Nigeria.

Abstract

Followership is reflected as the reciprocal social process of leadership in the sense that followership mirrors the capacity of a person or group to follow a leader. Leaders and followers interchangeably form basis for each other in those leaders lead because there are followers, and followers follow because there are leaders. Recently, across the globe, followership is gaining prominence and can no longer be ignored in leadership discussions. Governance on the other hand is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). The study relied on documentary method of data collection as it also implored content analysis. In this paper, the discussion will center on the varieties of followers according to different typologies; their implications for actions that will promote good governance and development in Nigeria, and critical analyses of some factors in which followership failed in the achievement of good governance and national development in Nigeria. Recommendations for actions as well as for further studies were made.