Abstract
Nigeria, a country richly endowed with natural resources and high quality human capital is yet to find its rightful place among the comity of nations. A major reason that has been responsible for her socioeconomic stagnation is the phenomenon of corruption. The kernel of the paper rest in the fact that political leadership and corruption were interwoven and it is against this background that it explored the corrupt tendencies of the political leadership class in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study
One of the major challenges facing Nigeria and other developing areas of the world is how to create a context of stable political and socio-economic environment for policies and programs to be implemented. The issue of getting the right leadership to fight corruption and propel good governance has been a recurring decimal in Nigeria and Africa in general. Once this enabling environment is created, it becomes easy for the people to confront and resolve challenges facing them by using resources within their environment to create a condition of life where each stage is progressively better than the preceding one. However, this is not the case in Nigeria due to corruption and bad governance. Good governance encapsulates transparency, accountability, freedom of choice and liberty for the people to pursue their individual and corporate interest. Indeed, at the core of Africa’s underdeveloped status are corruption and leadership deficit. Leadership and good governance are crucial to realizing any giant stride taken in pursuit of development anywhere in the world, Nigeria is not an exception. The reverberation effects of the failure of leadership, corruption and bad governance are visible and being felt across all sectors and segment of the Nigerian society. Unemployment and employment for cash, insecurity, crude oil thefts, crisis in education, dearth of infrastructures such as health services, transportation, accommodation, communication, medication etc are all common features in Nigeria. It is an irony that of all oil producing nations, Nigeria is the only country with the history of crude oil thefts. Michels (in Olayiwola, 2013) posits that an examination of Nigeria’s socio-economic and political history reveals that many of its leaders over the years have been using the “iron law of oligarchy” which explains the triumph of the leaders’ ambitions for office over the membership’s revolutionary goals. Since the flag of political independence in 1960, Nigerian leaders and their regimes have been deeply engrossed in excessive acts of corruption and bad governance. All available means have been employed by Nigerian political leaders to ‘grab’ power including the blatant rigging of elections, manipulation of census figures, violence, thuggery, arson, vandalism, gangsterism, corruption, religious bigotry, regionalism, tribalism, ethnic sentiments and acts of brigandage as witnessed in the utterances of some delegates in the 2014 national conference. Relegation of public interest, malpractices of all forms, crimes of every description, mendacity, lack of candour, readiness to cheat, grabbing, philistinism, ethnic and sectional inclinations are the only game in town. All these have precipitated social dislocation, insecurity, violence, abject poverty, socio-economic and political instability. National integration has been elusive, yet it is needed to achieve the universal goal of development, that is, the pursuit of people’s material welfare and wellbeing. A society that is unjust and devoid of equity and equality will inherently be unstable. Hence, this research shall explicate on the contributions of past and present leadership class that has managed and directed the affairs of the country since independence to the growth and institutionalization of corruption in Nigeria. This is a way of justifying the underlying thesis of this research that the political leadership of the country since independence is responsible for entrenching corruption in Nigeria and, by extension, had impeded meaningful socio-economic development. It is an incontrovertible fact that corruption has been the bane of Nigeria’s development. Thus, without mincing words the phenomenon has ravaged the country and destroyed most of what is held as cherished national values. Unfortunately, the political class saddled with the responsibility of directing the affairs of the country have been the major culprit in perpetrating this act. Regrettably, since independence a notable surviving legacy of the successive political leadership both civilian and military that have managed the affairs of the country at different times has been the institutionalisation of corruption in all agencies of the public service, which, like a deadly virus, has subsequently spread to the private sector of the country.
- STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
African countries are confronted with leadership deficit in terms of patriotism. The problem of governance and transition of power has given birth to imposition of unqualified persons to man the affairs of the nation over the past decade. ranging from political party adoption of unpopular candidate and imposing the person on the electorate which is a common trend in Nigeria politics. This singular act sees this politician embarking on court and counter court case to ascertain the legitimacy of the government of the day. For the first time in Nigeria since 1999 and incumbent president loss an election in 2015 and conceded defeat to enable effective leadership and crises free governance. This research seeks to address the problem of leadership deficit of different form that the country has been undergoing.
- OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is how leadership deficit impair Nigeria’s national development. However, for the successful completion of the study, the researcher set out the following sub objectives:
- To ascertain the relationship between leadership and national development
- To evaluate the impact of leadership deficit on national development
- To evaluate the impact of corruption on national development
- To ascertain the causes of leadership deficit in Nigeria
- RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
For the successful completion of the study, the following hypotheses were formulated:
H0: there is no significant relationship between leadership and national development
H1: there is significant relationship between leadership and national development
H02: leadership deficit does not have a significant impact on national development
H2: leadership deficit has a significant impact on national development
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is conceived that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great benefit to the federal and state government of Nigeria in addressing the prevailing leadership crises in the nation to enhanced effective national development in all sphere of the economy.
The will also be of benefit to the local government administrator to guide them in ensuring the development of their sphere of leadership and maintain a peacefully locality. The study will also be of benefit to academia, as it will also add to knowledge bank, lecturers, students and the general public.
- SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This research covers leadership deficit on Nigeria national development. The research however has some limitation according to the researcher, and below are some of the constrain:
Availability research materials: materials that the researcher require for the research work was unavailable for the research work.
Time factor: time was not on the researchers to consult various sectors of the economy to review employees or given out questionnaire to various institutions on the effect of government revenue policies. As we all know, time is never our friend. The time scheduled for the completion of this research thesis was too short. As a result, generating information/data was strenuous as it coincides with final year examination period, which needed attention.
Finance: this is another barrier that limited the researcher’s work.
- DEFINITION OF TERMS
National development
National development refers to the ability of a nation to improve the lives of its citizens. Measures of improvement may be material, such as an increase in the gross domestic product, or social, such as literacy rates and availability of healthcare.
National development plan
National Development Plan was the title given by the Irish Government to a scheme of organized large-scale expenditure on (mainly) national infrastructure. The period covered by the seven-year plan ran from 2000 to 2006. A second National Development Plan ran from 2007 to 2011 (spending €70 million a day every day during this period). The main elements to the original plan were the development of a national motorway network between the major cities in Ireland. The upgrading of the rail network was a secondary scheme. In November 2011, the Government announced that the National Development Plan was to be succeeded by a Capital Investment Plan. This scheme began on 1 January 2012 and ran until 31 December 2015. A second Capital Investment Plan is currently running from 1 January 2016 to 2021
Leadership
Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual or organization to “lead” or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The literature debates various viewpoints: contrasting Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, and also (within the West) US vs. European approaches. US academic environments define leadership as “a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task
Crisis
A crisis is any event that is, or is expected to lead to, an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole society. Crises are deemed to be negative changes in the security, economic, political, societal, or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no warning. More loosely, it is a term meaning “a testing time” or an “emergency event.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
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