Leadership crisis in Nigeria: Theological study of John 10:11-15

Abstract

The circumstance of every nation is determined by the quality and vision of her leaders. Since after independent, Nigeria has been so unfortunate not to have gotten competent, effective and purposeful leaders capable of turning her highly great natural potentials into real economic and political powers. Both leaders and the lead fail to identify the essential values that sustain various societies constituting the nation and infuse such values into the nation’s social system. This incompetence has led to leadership crisis and has now clogged on its wheel of striving for development. It is this bad leadership and perhaps the poor handling of many ethnic groups in the country that have triggered the conflict and anxiety that have trailed quest for national integration since after independence. This paper therefore, using the periscope John 10:11-15 which deals with the parable of the Good Shepherd, examines the leadership qualities of Jesus Christ and recommends it to Nigerian leaders. It further examines the text to ascertain its theological implications. The study traces two kinds of leadership operated in Nigeria (military and civilian) since after independence. While emphasizing the need for moral education and constant value re-orientation as the means to surmount the Nigeria’s leadership challenges, the study recommends among others, the urgent need for paradigm shift in our social system in order to restore value based Nigerian society that would directly translate to value based leadership.

Keywords: Leadership, Crisis, Education, Value