INTERROGATING THE PARADOX AND CONJECTURES OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE DEFICIT IN AFRICA

Abstract

This paper examined leadership and governance crisis in contemporary Africa, and its attendant consequences on state development. Leadership failure has been the bane of African states since post-independence, decades ago. Lack of ideology and absence of leadership with transformative attitude has been one of several reasons why governance isreceding on the continent. The impact of leadership in promoting good governance and development of a state and a strong linkage between political leadership and good governance is what define transformative and responsive government that cares for welfare of the citizenry. However, with few exceptions in some African states, citizens have continued to bear the burden of leadership failure. The key objective of this paper is to examine the major impacts of leadership on good governance. While the paper acknowledges the efforts of some of these political leaders to transform their states, the fact however, remains that the means of executing these noble transformative goals are in a “state of vacillation”. The studyadopted elite theory as its theoretical framework and relied on secondary source of information for its data. The paper found that the recycling of poor leadership has continued to dash all hopes of achieving growth and development in Africa and recommends that stakeholders in these countries must device new approaches to leadership recruitment; while the political leadership must strive to promote probity, accountability and good governance