LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE: MODEL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The current agitation for a better Nigeria motivated the choice of the title of this paper, especially now that there is global crisis in leadership, which is on the high side in Africa as a continent and its countries. Democracy represents the most viable avenue through which the legitimate aspirations of a people for a better quality of life can be expressed and claims for redress made. Democracy is therefore critical to sustainable human and nation’s development. Nigeria as a country has experienced successively a failed democracy, which in the contemporary time calls for attention. The call for leadership by example in the political setting of Nigeria and Africa at large may be indicative of a country and continent that have strayed far away from upholding a style of leadership that is model and standard. The research findings have shown that Nigeria’s real problem is lack of leadership by example and the corruption that is widely acclaimed is part of failure in Nigeria leadership. Nigeria is plagued by a lot of challenges, ranging from being ranked as the third most dangerous country of the world in terms of terrorism, banditry, unemployment, and dearth of healthcare facilities, among others. This paper totally disagrees with all those who say that our major national disease is financial corruption; rather, by research findings the real disease has been the absence of true leadership, which had given birth to financial corruption and public fund embezzlement. Data collection method for this research is mostly secondary data collection method. This paper therefore examines the extent bad leadership has marred the country’s development and its citizens’ progress and in conclusion proffers leadership by example and servant leadership as remedy to the leadership problems in Nigeria polity.