Leadership Education and Effective Leadership Exercise in Nigeria

Abstract

That leadership is a critical factor for the effective pursuit and attainment of set goals is no longer in doubt. Leadership acts both as limiting lid and enabling tool for not only envisioning and articulating desired goals but strategically and effectively pursuing them. Political leadership, in particular, is known to directly or indirectly influence the growth and global competitiveness and pride of any nation-state. Raising and enthroning such leadership frame that truly works, however, has remained a challenge for many countries especially those in sub–Saharan African, including Nigeria. In the face of Nigeria’s lingering experience of political leadership challenges and the consequent lag in her growth and global competitiveness index, the quest for the means and measures for identifying and raising that political leadership that truly works for Nigeria is invariably stoked. It is in the bid to respond to this need that this paper alludes to the involvement of or investment in leadership education. In so doing, it notes that the employment of leadership education in the overall process of leadership selection and enthronement must go beyond mere inclusion to that of careful and critical involvement and engagement. To this end, the paper contends that unless leadership education is effectively involved in the overall efforts at resolving the political leadership question in Nigeria its denouement would most likely remain an unsurmountable mirage.