Leadership Failure as a Drawback to Africa’s Socio-Economic Development: Analysis of the Challenges and the way forward

Abstract

Leadership crises in Africa has precipitated series of military coups, insecurity and other myriad of challenges various states in the continent have been plagued with since their independence from colonial subjugation. And these, as many scholars contended, account for the unenviable position of the continent in developmental indexes—like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development index (HDI) which ranked world countries based on key developmental dimensions and indicators. With focus on leadership landscape, this paper examined the continent’s developmental challenges, the efforts made to curb them at national and continental levels, and the way forward. Secondary data sourced from journal articles and published reports formed the bedrock of the analysis which, first, traced the root of the challenges to the balkanisation of the African continent during colonial rule, and second, showed the failure of the persistent experimentation of unrefined western models of democracy in post-independence Africa. The paper therefore posited that without derogating from 21^st century universal leadership values, home-grown democracy that will inculcate African values and ensure inclusion of all ethnoreligious groups holds the key to ending the continent’s leadership crises, which would in turn set it on track for sustainable development.