THE CONUNDRUM OF ACCIDENTAL LEADERSHIP AS NIGERIA’S QUAGMIRE

Abstract

Nigeria, since independence has worn a toga of a land of immense untapped potentials. Sixty-four years have passed and the potential remains just that – a potential.  With vast human and material resources, large arable land, and equable weather conditions, Nigeria manages to exist on the fringes of the global stage trapped in the quagmire of under-development. Nigeria’s under-developed state has been underlined by insecurity, corruption, maladministration and clueless adventurists masquerading as political actors. All these are but symptoms of a deeper malaise that has held the nation bound: the bane of unprepared and accidental leaders. The problematizes the leadership factor as being the main factor responsible for the state of Nigeria’s underdevelopment, situating the discussion at the intersection of the arrested development of Nigeria, the primacy of leadership and governance as a panacea for development and the historical reality of accidental and unprepared Presidents and Heads of Government in Nigeria. Pinpointed in the work is the menace of political godfatherism in Nigeria’s political economy and the skewed leadership recruitment processes that overlook meritocratic, ethical, and inclusive leadership ethos that would harness Nigeria’s diversities and differences into strengths, resorting instead to values of loyalty and narrow interests for leadership recruitment.  The paper concludes that Nigeria requires a transparent, equitable, and responsible system for leadership recruitment at all levels of governance as a sine qua non for sustainable development.