Leadership Recruitment Process And National Development In Nigeria

By

Otive Igbuzor, PhD

Founding Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD) 

Headquarters: 3B, Niger Avenue, Villa Nova Estate,

after Cedar Crest Hospital,

Apo Dutse, Abuja, Nigeria.

Website: www.centrelsd.org; www.otiveigbuzor.com

E-mail: otiveigbuzor@yahoo.co.uk; otive.igbuzor@centrelsd.org

KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT THE ANNUAL LEADERSHIP LECTURE/GRADUATION AND 7TH MATRICULATION CEREMONY OF VALUE REBIRTH-CENTRE LSD LEADERSHIP SCHOOL AT THE DELTA STUDY CENTRE, EFFURUN-WARRI, DELTA STATE ON 12TH AUGUST, 2023.

1.     INTRODUCTION

Leadership has been recognised as one of the most important variables that affect the performance of any organisation, institution or nation. Study after study, superior financial and organisational performance, as well as other forms of success, have been linked to leadership.[1] Scholars have opined that the success or failure of organisations and nations depends on leadership excellence and not managerial acumen.[2]

It has been documented that the progress, development and fortunes of many nations are tied to the type and quality of the political leadership that they have had and continue to have.[3]  In a survey of 1,767 experts across the world, 86 percent of the respondents agreed that the world is facing a leadership crisis.[4]  According to Myles Munroe, the world is filled with followers, supervisors and managers but very few leaders.[5]

Chinua Achebe argued that “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian Character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else.”[6] But scholars have documented that scourges of bad leadership and signs of darkened mood are everywhere in Nigeria.[7]

Despite the recognition that Leadership is crucial for the development of organisations and nations and that leaders can be trained, there are very few organisations especially in Africa dedicated to grooming leaders. Myles Munroe put it aptly:

There is leadership potential in every person. Despite this universal latent ability, very few individuals realise this power, and fewer still have responded effectively to the call. As a result, our nations, societies and communities are suffering from an astounding leadership void.[8]

This is why the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD) Leadership School was initiated to build strategic leadership for sustainable development in Africa.

  In this keynote address, we examine the relationship between leadership recruitment process and national development in Nigeria.  But first, we explicate the concept of leadership.  

2.     CONCEPT OF LEADERSHIP

Like most terms in social discourse, there is no universal definition of leadership. Leadership is defined in different ways by several scholars. Myles Munroe defines leadership as the ability to lead others by influence.[9] This includes the capacity to influence, inspire, rally, direct, encourage, motivate, induce, move, mobilize, and activate others to pursue a common goal or purpose while maintaining commitment, momentum, confidence and courage.  The most popular definition is that Leadership is influence.[10] Influence here means the ability to move another person in a direction you believe is important. According to Bernard Montgomery, a British Field Marshal, Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. [11] To influence requires that your ideas are heard and accepted. You can only win hearts and minds when you respect their aspirations, interests and concerns.[12] According to Daniel Goleman, the fundamental task of leaders is to prime good feeling in those they lead.[13] Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great said, “An army of deer led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a deer.”[14]

The leadership of any organization or country determines its success or failure.  It is the process of providing guidance to followers- the art of influencing human behaviour to strive willingly for mutually compatible objectives.  One scholar once argued that “a leader is a person who knows the road, who can keep ahead and who pulls others after him/her.”  The Core Leadership Responsibilities include achieving the task, building and maintaining the group and developing the individual. In any organisation or country, it is the leadership that mobilises people to get things done.

Leaders can get things done by engaging in five practices.[15] First is to model the way by clarifying values through giving voice and affirming shared ideals as well as setting the example by aligning actions with shared values. Secondly, leaders can get things done by envisioning the future and enlisting others in a common vision through appealing to shared aspirations. Thirdly, leaders can challenge the process by searching for opportunities through innovative ways to improve and experimenting, taking risks and learning from experience. Fourthly, leaders can enable others to act by fostering collaboration, building trust, facilitating relationships and strengthening others through increasing self-determination and developing competence. Finally, leaders can get things done by recognizing contributions through showing appreciation for individual excellence and celebrating the values and victories by creating a spirit of community. 

According to John Maxwell, a good leader has 21 indispensable qualities namely character; charisma (ability to draw people to you); commitment; effective communication; competence (ability to say it, plan it and do it); courage; discernment (ability to find out the root of a matter through intuition, intellect and experience); focus (to ensure prioritization, concentration and task completion); generosity; initiative; listening; passion; positive attitude; problem solving ability; relationships; responsibility; security; self-discipline; servanthood; teachability and vision.[16]

It is important to point out that leaders are ordinary people who accept or are placed under extra-ordinary circumstances that bring forth their latent potential, producing a character that inspires the confidence and trust of others.[17] This is why Amandla, the cultural wing of the Africa National Congress (ANC) stated that leaders are not born; they are produced during the course of the struggle. Great leaders are usually ordinary people who are prepared to sacrifice and do extraordinary things because circumstances made demands on their potential. True leaders are not selfish and have no interest in themselves or position but committed to influencing others for the common good.

3.     NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Every nation is born through a process. A nation has been defined as a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society.[18] A nation state is a territorially bounded sovereign polity that has a defined territory and the right to govern themselves. Most nations in the world today came into being after struggle for independence from other people that conquered them or occupied their territories. This is why nations require building after birth.

The concept of nation building has attracted the attention of Political Scientists especially from the 1950s. It is primarily used to describe the processes of national integration and consolidation that lead up to the establishment of the modern nation state as distinct from various form of traditional states such as feudal states, church states, empires etc.[19] Nation building can therefore be likened to the construction of a building requiring the existence of consciously acting agents such as architects, engineers, carpenters etc. Some scholars have contended that nation building is a product of imagination requiring invention and fabrication.[20]From the above, it is clear that nation building involves complex issues of integration, culture, ethnic and religious diversity, political and social engineering and capacity of the state to promote development and deliver services to the people.

All over the world, there are challenges of nation building resulting in a situation where some countries are rich, and others are poor. There have been various studies on what make some countries rich and others poor; and why some countries are making progress while others are declining and failing to deliver services to citizens. Some scholars have argued that the reasons can be located in climate, geography, culture or ignorance of leaders.[21] They posit that nations fail because their extractive political and economic institutions do not create incentives needed for people to save, invest and innovate but that the institutions are run by elite groups who are exploiting the resources for their own use, leaving little to the population at large.[22]

It must be pointed out that nation building is not just about building infrastructure-roads, buildings, bridges and flyovers as some politicians will want us to believe. This is why some scholars talk about holistic development which is a shift from focus on economic growth and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to well being. The idea is to harmoniously advance the well being of both people and the planet. Other scholars have developed what is called Gross National Happiness with nine pillars: Health; Education; Living standards; Psychological well being; Time use; Ecological Diversity and resilience; Community vitality; Cultural Diversity and Resilience; and Good governance. 

At times, during the process of nation building, some nations or countries are battered or destroyed necessitating the need for rebirth. The concept of rebirth has been described as the regeneration of something that has died or has been destroyed.[23] It also means revival of important ideas or forces usually as part of broad and significant change typifying renaissance, reawakening or resurgence. National rebirth has been simply defined as the regeneration of a battered country to improving the standard of living of the nation.[24]There are debates about whether Nigeria is a nation or not given the basic definition and characteristics of a nation. Some contend that Nigeria is not yet united by language, religion, culture or a common national story.[25] But there is no doubt that Nigeria is a nation in process of being built. The building of the Nigerian nation has been hampered by challenges of development. Scholars have identified the challenges to include among other things poor leadership; bad followership; poor strategy for development; lack of capable and effective state and bureaucracy; lack of focus on sectors that will improve the condition of living of citizens such as education, health, agriculture and the building of infrastructure; corruption; undeveloped, irresponsible and parasitic private sector; weak civil society; emasculated labour and student movement and poor execution of policies and programmes.[26]

In any case, Nigeria as a country has been battered and urgently needs rebirth. Nigeria is ranked 163rd in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) out of 191 countries in 2021. Nigeria life expectancy is 52.7 years in 2021 (compare with 64.38 years in South Africa, 72.22 years in Egypt and 87.57 years in Japan). According to UNICEF, Nigeria has 18.5 million out of school children, the highest in the world.[27] The World’s Economist Intelligence Unit report which ranks the best and worst cities to live in the world indicated that Lagos in Nigeria is the third worst city to live in the World.[28] The other cities are Damascus, Syria (1); Tripoli, Libya (2); Dhaka, Bangladesh (4); Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (5); Algiers, Algeria (6); Karachi, Pakistan (6); Harare, Zimbabwe (8) and Doula, Cameroun (9).  Poverty rate in Nigeria increased from 15 percent in 1960 to 28.1 percent in 1980 to 69.2 percent in 1997 to about 50 percent currently hosting the largest number of poor people in the world. 

It is instructive to note that by 2014, Nigeria ranked third in hosting the largest number of poor people in the world after India (first position) and China (second position).[29] But by 2018, Nigeria was declared as the world poverty capital with around 87 million people living in extreme poverty compared with India’s 73 million according to the World Poverty Clock. It is important to note that the population of Nigeria in 2018 was estimated to be about 195.9 million which is about 15 percent of the population of India (1.353 billion) and 14 percent of China (1.393 billion), yet it hosts the largest number of poor people in the world. The change was partly as a result of social protection policies implemented by China and India combined with enlightened leadership and pressure from below. According to the McKinsey Global Report, 2018, China lifted 713 million people and India 170 million people out of poverty between 1990 and 2013. They achieved this feat through inclusive, pro- poor growth; fiscal policies for wealth redistribution; employment generation; public service provision and social protection.[30] All of these underscores the importance of leadership in national development.  

4.     LEADERSHIP RECRUITMENT PROCESS

“Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. 

To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. 

To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.

To be led by a thief is to offer your most precious treasures to be stolen.

To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.

To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.”

-Octavia E. Butler

Leadership recruitment process is the process of selecting the right leader for an organisation or country. For many organisations, it includes steps of listing the candidates, getting information about the candidates and selecting one of them. Throughout history, different systems have been used to recruit political leaders ranging from self governance and monarchy to complex democratic systems. It is important to note that human organisation started with families and self-governance before states arose. Since then, various systems have been experimented including autocracy, monarchy and democracy. But from experience, it has been recognized all over the world that democracy is the best form of government. Autocracy characterized by one individual making all important decisions and oligarchy which puts the government in the hands of an elite are less desirable when compared to democracy.[31] Democracy is so important in the world today that it has become the driving force of development making many scholars to draw a nexus between democracy and development.[32] Although different people put emphasis on different issues which they consider to be crucial to democracy, majority of people agree that liberal democracy contains some basic principles which include citizen participation; equality; political tolerance; accountability; transparency; regular, free and fair elections, economic freedom; control of the abuse of power; bill of rights; accepting the result of elections; human rights; multi-party system and the rule of law.  The idea of democracy is that majority of citizens take the decisions on who governs and the policies, programmes and projects to be implemented for the benefit of the people. But the challenge especially for the working people is that it has been recognized that liberal democracy is facing a crisis of legitimacy and declining confidence in political leaders and institutions necessitating the need for democratic renewal through increasing citizen participation.[33] The process of governance has been hijacked by the political elite and the dividends of democracy do not go to the people. 

The Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria (ISMN) has documented that generally a leader emerges from four sources- tradition, conquest, election and for personal qualities.[34]  Leaders can emerge through established tradition by inheritance as a social tradition or custom or spiritual ordination. Leaders can emerge by conquest such as imposition from military coups or by use of force or intimidation or impoverishment of the people in ways that leave them with no option than to involuntarily accept or invite the manipulator to lead them. Leaders can also emerge where a leader is duly elected when he/she is preferentially chosen in an atmosphere that is free and fair. Finally, leaders can emerge by the force of their personal qualities which set them apart from and above other people. 

As Prof. Austin Uwandulu has argued, selection is a process of making a choice while election is a tool or technique for selection. It has been pointed out that common errors in leadership selection is to use criteria such as seniority, loyalty, availability, religion and ethnicity.[35]  Unfortunately, in many cases, wrong selection criteria are used for picking leaders across the world. 

It is important to note that different techniques have been used to select leaders across the world. Until the seventeenth century, leadership selection was through tradition and conquest. But humanity came to experience the disadvantages of selecting leaders through such techniques. As from the 18th century, elections became the dominant and preferred mode of leadership selection across the world. Modern Party system and elections developed in Britain in the 18th Century and US in the decade following the ratification of the constitution of the United States in 1788. 

The history of election in Nigeria dates back to the colonial era when the Clifford constitution was introduced in 1922.[36] The constitution provided for an income based adult male suffrage where only adult males with a gross income of not less than one hundred pounds (£100) were allowed to vote. The first election under the constitution was held in 1923. The second election was held in 1947 following the introduction of the Richards Constitution in 1946 which reduced the income qualification to fifty pounds (£50). The third election was in 1952 following the introduction of the Macpherson constitution in 1951 which removed income qualification for adult male suffrage. The first three elections were into the legislative council, central legislature and regional legislature respectively. But the first general election was the 1954 General election into the central legislature following the introduction of the Lytleton Constitution of 1954. This was followed by the 1959 Federal elections, the 1964 general elections, the 1965 western election and the 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023 general elections.[37]

All over the world today, election is the most acceptable tool or technique for selection of political leaders who lead the process of nation building or development. Tradition and conquest are no longer fashionable. Those who rely on personal qualities use it to win elections. 

5.     HOW LEADERSHIP CAN BRING ABOUT NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Leadership has been recognised as one of the most important variables that affect the performance of any organisation, institution or nation. The importance of leadership for the success of organizations and nations cannot be overemphasized. Some scholars have pointed out that everything rises and falls on leadership.[38]  Meanwhile, it has been documented that all great nations were blessed with leaders who harnessed the potentialities of their people and moulded them into the envy of others because as Maxwell argued, the leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.[39]

There are many ways that leadership can bring about national development. The first thing is to develop a strong vision, mission and values for the country specifying strategic imperatives and critical success factors.[40] The second is to set a long-term direction for the country. Development requires long term perspectives which must be managed with short term political demands. Nigeria is suffering from short-termism. Although there is now a long term development plan, Nigeria Agenda 2050, most states of the federation including Delta State do not have a long term development plan. The third is to create democratically transparent, open and fair processes and systems in all sectors in government, private sector and civil society. The fourth is to initiate a comprehensive change agenda affecting all facets of life: security, economy, politics, social and technology and manage the change effectively through education and communication, participation and involvement, facilitation and support, negotiation and rewards and recruiting strategic change champions.[41] Finally, leadership can bring about development by promoting performance. Leadership can play a big role in engendering a high performance organizational culture. Leaders can do three things to create a high performance organisation.[42] The first is to lead from the centre of the group, team, unit or organisation to engage team members to unleash their desire and abilities and achieve extra ordinary results. The leader must clarify values of the nation and share a common vision and enable others to act to unleash their desires and abilities. Second, the leader must create effective systems and processes by developing a performance enhancing organizational culture through challenging the processes and ensuring continuous improvement. Third, the leader must establish a direction for the nation that is clear, concise and compelling. 

Prof. Austin Uwandulu has proposed a pathway for positioning Nigeria strategically by 2100.[43] He argues that it will require positioning the country in several perspectives: economy, demography, ecology (energy and climate change), politics (power manipulation, influence peddling and authority wielding), leadership, peace and diplomacy as well as strategizing to have a combination of power packs (military, diplomacy, technology, economic, demography, leadership and ecology). He opined that to achieve this will require relevant education, relevant knowledge, relevant skills, relevant experience, deconstruction of Nigeria’s development pillars which have been largely damaged, regeneration or rebirth and accelerated and sustainable growth. He pointed out that the critical success factors will be to deal with the challenges of insecurity, corruption, underemployment, poverty, infrastructural deficiencies, poor governance and low-quality education.

 From the above, it is clear that what needs to be done to bring about development in Nigeria is known. Development theory and practice have developed clear pathways to deal with all the challenges identified above. The challenge is the leadership, strategy and will to do the needful. 

6.     LEADERSHIP RECRUITMENT PROCESS IN NIGERIA

As noted above, one of the reasons why development  has stagnated in Nigeria and the country battered necessitating the need for rebirth is poor leadership especially in political leadership. It has been documented that a remarkable phenomenon throughout history is that humanity, it would seem performs worse on government than on almost any other human activity.[44] Nigeria is a classical case. As an illustration, there are Nigerians in leadership positions across the world doing the nation proud. The United Nations has Amina Mohammed as the Deputy Secretary General. The African Development Bank has Dr. Adewumi Adesina as the President. The World Trade Organisation has Dr. Ngozi Okoji-Iweala as Director General. The World Medical Association has Dr. Osahon Enabulele as President. The ten richest people in Africa include three Nigerians (Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu and Mike Adenuga). Unfortunately, we have not been able to replicate good quality leadership in the political arena in Nigeria.

One of the reasons why Nigeria has experienced poor political leadership is a faulty recruitment process by way of elections. There are a lot of challenges with the conduct of elections in Nigeria from the 1923 election to the 2023 election. It has been documented that elections in Nigeria are constant tales of violence, fraud and bad blood.[45] The challenges include among other things irregularities which put the credibility of the entire electoral process in doubt; problems with the legislative framework which puts constraints on the electoral process; several organisations are not playing their roles to ensure credible, free and fair election; the electoral system does not give room for inclusiveness; lack of independence of electoral commissions; long process of election dispute resolution; irresponsible behaviour by politicians and followers manifesting in thuggery and violence; lack of effective democratic institutions and monetisation of politics. It has been documented that money not only determines who participates in electoral politics but that money drowns votes and voices in Nigeria as ‘godfathers’ openly confess about shady deals, funding or sponsoring elections for ‘godsons’ and purchasing electoral victory.[46] The end result of the challenges is that the votes of the citizens do not count.[47]

At independence in 1960, there was a lot of hope and enthusiasm as captured by the speech of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa:

This is a wonderful day, and it is all the more wonderful because we have awaited it with increasing impatience, compelled to watch one country after another overtaking us on the road when we had so nearly reached our goal. But now we have acquired our rightful status, and I feel sure that history will show that the building of our nation proceeded at the wisest pace: it has been thorough, and Nigeria now stands well-built upon firm foundations.[48]  

Inspite of the hope and enthusiasm, the first Republic collapsed in 1966 followed by series of successful military coup détats (1966, 1975, 1983, 1985 and 1993). Every military take over was met with hope and enthusiasm only to be dashed as a result of failure of nation building. Return to civil rule in 1979 was greeted with enthusiasm and the election of Alh. Shehu Shagari as President. But the hope was dashed with profligacy, corruption and a discredited 1983 elections. Similarly, the emergence of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 and Mohammadu Buhari in 2015 were met with hope and a lot of expectations by Nigerians. But those expectations were largely unfulfilled. As the 2023 elections gathered momentum, there was another heightened expectation. But poor performance by INEC especially failure to transmit votes as they were being counted brought doubts about the authenticity of the 2023 election results. 

From the above, it is clear that the process of recruiting leaders in Nigeria have often resulted in inappropriate and poor leaders leading to putting round pegs in square holes. The opportunity presented by the electoral process to recruit leaders is truncated by manipulation of the electoral process. Political parties are captured by money bags. The nomination process is hijacked by a few politicians or in some cases by one politician. The party officials are bought to cook results of nomination process. At the general elections, thugs and violence are unleashed on the people. Money, wrappers, motor cycles etc are used to induce voters. Accreditation of voters is compromised. The BVAs is by passed. Even after voting, electoral officials are compromised to inflate figures. 

This is why scholars have argued that leadership recruitment at all levels of governance is central to Nigeria’s national predicament and getting it right is key to the resolution of poor governance and national development.[49] It has been documented that there is a band of bad people who dominate and control our political and governance processes in Nigeria.[50]

7.     CONCLUSION AND THE WAY FORWARD 

Nigeria’s journey to nationhood has lacked strategic imagination and strategic leaders.  Meanwhile, the country is at a critical juncture following the challenges of the 2023 elections. This is a time that Nigeria needs strategic leaders for national rebirth and development. There is the need for a strategic pathway for national rebirth and development.  The strategic pathway should contain a long term direction for the country. It should give a clear picture of a destination for the country that is in alignment with the destiny of the nation. [51] The pathway should provide a leadership selection process that recognises character, competence and capability. It should also of necessity give an indication of how to develop strategic leadership that is inspiring, visionary, entrepreneurial, transformational and above all that can make things happen.

It is clear that the current leadership recruitment process cannot lead to the selection of dynamic, visionary and strategic leaders. The first anti-dote to the current defective leadership recruitment process is effective participation of citizens in the political process. Plato counsels us that if we refuse to participate in politics, we will be ruled by our inferiors. Edmond Burke argues that for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Competent people, educated people, professional people, religious people and indeed all patriots must make a decision to actively participate in politics. Secondly, there must be extensive political education. Many people including those who have gone to school are naïve and ignorant about politics and its place in society. Political education including electoral education will improve the organisation of party politics and the conduct of elections. Finally, Nigerians  must learn how to organisse to change society. Organising for change has its own strategies, tactics and dynamics. It does not come from a few workshops, few tweets and few demonstrations. It is not a dash. It is a marathon. 

 Nigeria is a potentially great nation. It has historically lacked strategic leaders that can bring about national development. But there is a lot that we can do to change the narrative. The students graduating today can be part of the change that we have been waiting for.

God bless you. 

ENDNOTES 

[1] Fulmer, R. M and Bleak, J. L (2008), The Leadership Advantage: How the Best Companies are Developing their Talent to Pave the Way for Future Success. New York, Amacom.
[2] Sinek, Simon (2017), Leaders Eat Last. UK, Penguin Ramdom House.
[3] Igbuzor, O (2017), Leadership, Development and Change. Ibadan, Kraft Books Limited
[4] Petiglieri, Gianpiero (2014), There is no Shortage of Leaders. Havard Business Review December 15, 2014.
[5] Munroe, Myles (2009), Becoming a Leader. New Kessington, Whitaker House.
[6] Achebe, Chinua (1987), The Trouble with Nigeria.
[7] Anam-Ndu, Ekeng A. (1998), The Leadership Question in Nigeria: A Prescriptive Exploration. Lagos, Geo-Ken Associates.
[8] Munroe, Myles (1993), Beco0ming a Leader. New Kensington, Whitaker House.
[9] Ibid
[10] Collier, K and Williams, M. (2004), Biblical Leadership: Becoming a Different Kind of Leader. Greenville, Ambassador International
[11] Quoted in Maxwell, J. C. (1999) The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. Nashville, Tennesse, Thomas Nelson Inc.
[12] Successful Manager’s Handbook (2002 by Moi Ali et all
[13] Goleman, Daniel (2012), The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results.
[14] Sanborn, Mark (2006), You don’t need a Title to be a Leader. New York, The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Company
[15] Igbuzor, O (2009), Lecture Notes on Leadership. Abuja, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development.
[16] Maxwell, J. C. (1999), Op Cit
[17] Munroe, M. (1993) Op cit
[18] Wikipedia
[19] Fredrick, Carl J. (1963), Nation Building in Karl Deutsh and William Foltz (Eds), Nation Building. New York, Atherton.
[20] Anderson, Benedict (1994), Imagined Communities. London, Verso.
[21] Acemoglu, D and Robinson J. A. (2012), Why Nations Fail-the Origin of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. New York, Crown Business.
[22] Ibid
[23] Moses, Chris, National Rebirth in Nigeria.
[24] Ibid
[25] Campbell, John (2020), Nigeria and the Nation State: Rethinking Diplomacy with the Post Colonial World. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
[26] Igbuzor, Otive (2021), Contemporary Issues on Development and Change in Nigeria. Abuja. Risafu Publishers.
[27] www.africanews.com 13th May, 2022 and Daily Trust, 25th Jan, 2022.
[28] The 9 Worst Cities to live in the World www.independent.co.uk
[29] Jim Yong Kim (2014), Nigeria, third on World Poverty Index-World bank Presidentv in Vanguard 11th April, 2014.
[30] Nino-Zarazau, M. and Addison, T. (2012), Redefining Poverty in China and India. Japan, United Nations University.
[31] Janda, K, Berry, J. M. and Goldman, J (1999), The Challenge of Democracy
[32] Igbuzor, O. (2005), Perspectives on Democracy and Development. Lagos, Joe-Tolalu & Associates.
[33] Bentley, T. (2005), Everyday Democracy: Why we get the Politicians we deserve. London, Demos.
[34] Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria (ISMN) Study Pack 2012-2015.
[35] Muntean, Christian, How to Pick a Leader: The Leadership Selection Funnel.
[36] Nnadozie, Uche (2007), History of Elections in Nigeria in Jega, A. and Ibeanu, O (Eds), Elections and the Future of Democracy in Nigeria. Nigeria Political Science Association.
[37] Igbuzor, Otive (2021) Op Cit
[38] Maxwell, J. C. (1999), The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson Inc.
[39] Gimba Hassan (2022), An Agenda for National Rebirth in Blueprint, 28th August, 2022.
[40] ISMN Study Pack 2012-2015
[41] Igbuzor, Otive (2017), Leadership, Development and Change. Ibadan, Kraft Books Limited.
[42] Truskie, S (2010), Leadership in high Performance Organisational Cultures
[43] Uwandulu, Austin (2014), The World of 2100: Positioning Nigeria Strategically. Presentation at 2014 ISMN Annual Conference held at Asaba on 17th July, 2014.
[44] Pena, Marcos (2021), A New Political Leadership for the 21st Century. Washington, Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
[45] Agbakoba, Olisa and Ilo, Udo Jude (2004), Where did we go Wrong? A Review of the 2003/2004 Elections in Nigeria. Lagos, The Human Rights Law Service.
[46] Adetula, V. A. O. (2008), Money and Politics in Nigeria. Abuja, IFES, Nigeria.
[47] Transition Monitoring Group (2003), Do the Votes Count? Final Report of the 2003 General Elections in Nigeria.
[48] Independence Speech of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
[49] Jega, Attahiru (2022), Leadership Recruitment in This Day 9th August, 2022
[50] Ibid
[51] Uwandulu, A. U (2012), Strategi Transformation of Delta State for Holistic Development. Effurun, Delta Development Initiative.