Leadership flaws in 2 Samuel 11: lessons for African leaders

Abstract

Flaws in leadership are as old as man but in contrast to Divine purpose for humanity. The good intention of the Creator was for human Beings to lead and enjoy all creatures on earth, but human deviation from Divine instruction flawed that leadership mandate and ushered suffering to human race. Similarly, the high rate of moral decadence, insecurity, insurgency, poverty, and political instability in Africa have recently gained global attention and shock, considering the wealth of human and natural resources endowed. Scholars had blamed African leaders for underdevelopment due to corruption whereas inadequate effort had been exacted on theological lessons from the Old Testament to salvage Africa from the menace. This paper employed a historical-critical method to examine the leadership flaws in 2 Samuel 11, and apply same to African context, with the aim of elucidating the causes and effects of leadership failures in governance. The paper discovered that leadership flaws are not spontaneous but evolve from untamed sporadic dispositions of inward indiscipline that manifest in form of lust, hypocrisy, conspiracy, assassination, promiscuity, hubris, cupidity and other social vices. The attitude of African leaders, in recent times, have hampered the democratic process in governance thereby giving room to ethnic divisions, imposition pattern of leadership selection process, inequitable resource control, economic backwardness and mediocrity in education amongst others. This paper therefore recommended self-discipline, fear of God, dialogue, equitable resource control, religious reproof, empathy, checks and balances for the minimization of leadership fallibilities and maximization of good governance in African Society.

Keywords: Leadership, Flaws, Africa, Lessons