THE QUESTION OF LEADERSHIP AND POLITICAL RESTRUCTURING IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The question of leadership is an essential ingredient in the process of nation-building. However, the tragedy of most post-colonial African states is that they lack visionary political leaders who are poised to transcend primordial interests. Against this backdrop, it is clear that the African problem is the unwillingness or inability of her leaders to rise to the responsibility and to the challenge of demonstrating personal examples which constitute the hallmarks of true leadership. It is a matter of fact that the development of any nation revolves around the humanistic and altruistic approaches adopted by her leaders. It is sad to observe that Nigerian leaders personalize and abuse power. Thus, instead of using the state for initiating development, most Nigerian leaders utilize it as a vehicle for terrorizing citizenry and political opponents. Most times, their approaches lead to disenchantment and disengagement of the populace from the public sphere. Amidst many problems in Nigeria, ranging from the problem of leadership, inequality in allocations, injustice, poor system and structure, corruption, marginalization and their like raises the alarm for restructuring. Therefore, adopting the philosophical methods of analysis and hermeneutics, this study examines the problems of leadership in Nigeria. It is a strong conviction of this study that the various problems of leadership in Nigeria can hardly be resolved unless Nigeria and Nigerians undertake a thorough and sincere restructuring which will bring about peace, unity, national consciousness, development and good governance.