Leadership Challenges in Africa

The current assignment focuses on the concept of leadership challenges in Africa. The long-term effect of colonization is evident within the African population as many leaders still possess a master-slave mentality towards citizens. The presence of a polyarchial government has hindered the welfare and promotion of basic needs for people. Development of centralized power could also result in equal promotion of rights for people.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA
Leadership in Africa
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Background................................................................................................................................2
Challenges of leadership in Africa.............................................................................................2
Differences between traditional and modern leadership............................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Background
The current assignment focuses on the challenges of leadership faced in the African
sub-continent. The lack of effective leadership in Africa leads to a situation of political
unrest. The region has far too many tropical gangsters who do not take into consideration
sound policy advice (Johnson, 2015). The leadership crisis could be explained on the basis of
the democratic transitions in Africa. The political conflicts could also be attributed to the
presence of a number of multiethnic societies of Africa. As commented by Fourie, van der
Merwe & Van Der Merwe (2017), constant conflicts within the ethical values of the
multiethnic societies leads to the situation of political unrest in Africa. The elections in Africa
are subjected to international accountability (Obadare & Adebanwi, 2016). The economic
susceptibility of the continent subjects it to greater amount of international assistance. As
argue by Johnson (2015), the misbalance in political powers makes the situation even worse.
Africa inspite of its diverse resources kept on crumpling under the pressure of leaderless
adversities. The African leaders have caused the continent to lose $ 1.4 trillion from 1980 to
2010 (Fourie et al., 2017). The years added together, the economic losses are huge. The
tyrannical leadership of Africa supports the emergence of social misfits which causes
oppression of the freedom of the inhabitants of the continent.
Challenges of leadership in Africa
There are a number of leadership challenges which are eminent in the African sub-
continent, which have been discussed in more details in the following sections. In this
respect, the over politization of the Nigerian state could be explained on the basis of
uncontrolled struggle for power, patronage and influence. There was the uprise of a local
political group without commitment to social well being. The dearths of policies that have
nationalistic importance have led to the political unrest within the country (Obadare &

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Adebanwi, 2016). Some of the facts which have surfaced over here are the discrepancy in
leadership style which has affected the working class of Africa greatly. It has been seen that
the Nigerian management follows an autocratic leadership style where a master slave
relation is given importance instead of utmost inclusion of the employees in a business
organization context. Another issue which have been highlighted over here is unnecessary
privatization of the state matters by the leaders. Some of the prime objectives of privatisation
as highlighted by the state leaders are healthcare, outsourcing of clientele base within
business organizations. As mentioned by Iwowo (2015), such a move led to the
disengagement of the populace from the public realm.
There are a number of challenges to governance in Africa such as lack of power of the
civil society to demand accountability from public sector leadership (Obadare & Adebanwi,
2016). Limited freedom of the media limits the voices and opinions possessed by the people
of the African sub-continent. As commented by Nkomo (2015), the devolution of power to
sub-national government has been viewed as a step towards re-establishment of the African
state. Additionally, the lack of power possessed by local administrators, societal
fragmentation is some of the factors affecting the power and autonomy of the people within
the African sub-continent.
There are a number of shortcomings with regards to the electoral system such as less
independence of the electoral commission and suppression of the process of registration for
electoral candidates. As commented by Adebanwi & Obadare (2016), the culture of political
parties needs to be revaluated using internal values. The first generation of African leaders
were victims of British colonization. As commented by Creswell et al. (2014), the African
leaders were put under immense pressure as to perform. It could be attributed to the mentality
which has affected them over the course of colonization. Hence, a dominant leadership
approach was followed over here which provided little autonomy to the citizens.

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Some of the steps which could be taken to address the issues of ineffective leadership in
Africa are:
 Development of a strong constitution that cannot be manipulated by strong political
elites by bringing forth changes in policies and mandate. Institutional arrangements for providing the inhabitants of the African continent with
improved life coverage by setting up public and national forums.
 Additionally strengthening economic cooperation with other SAARC nations can also
help in addressing some of the current issues emerged due to ineffective leadership
such as poverty and poor health.
In my opinion, revisiting the national policies or constitutional guidelines can help in the
establishment of a greater amount of social inclusion and social equalities.
Differences between traditional and modern leadership
The leadership style followed in Nigeria is patriarchal where the citizens are seen as
social subjects, who would strictly operate by the fixed rules and norms. In this respect, the
democratic multiparties have led to a polyarchial form of government over the monarchical
type (George et al., 2016). The Nigerian government followed a traditional approach to
leadership and management. Additionally, the leadership approach used over here was not
people centred. On the other hand adopting a transformational leadership approach could help
in bringing about social reforms within the African population (George et al., 2016). Two
major issues that have affected both national and international attention with respect to post-
independence sub-Saharan African states are nationalist struggles that hinder the
independence of the communities as a whole (Fourie et al., 2017). The main agenda of the
nationalist ruler was to overthrow an exploitive ruler. Hence, alien rule was to be replaced by
self government and independence. In order to bring changes within the traditional leadership

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style followed by Africa a variety of political programmes were required to be established.
Hence, it required mass support from the citizens for the implementation of the policies.
However, the lack of mutual agreement within the government and the public can lead
to difficulties in the implementation of the policies (Creswell et al., 2014). Therefore, the
African government can bring about a number of reforms in this regard by practising a people
centred approach. This could be brought about by providing the people sufficient power of
expression. In this respect, the power of the press and the media could be increased. In this
respect, good governance could be practised by supporting an affective decision making by
ideological accountability namely through participation, decency and fairness.
Conclusion
The current assignment focuses on the concept of leadership challenges in Africa. The
long term effect of colonization is evident within the African population as many leaders still
possess the mentality that they could practise a master slave relationship with the citizens.
The leaders hardly followed the sound social policies and reforms which could give equal
amount of freedom to the citizens. Additionally, unequal power distribution within the states
also resulted in social disharmony.
Additionally, the presence of a polyarchial government helped little for the welfare
and the promotion of the basic needs of the people. Therefore, development of a centralised
power could also result in the equal promotion of the rights of the people.

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References
Adebanwi, W., & Obadare, E. (2016). Governance and the Unending Search for Leadership
in African Politics. In Governance and the Crisis of Rule in Contemporary Africa(pp.
1-19). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Creswell, J., Sahu, S., Sachdeva, K. S., Ditiu, L., Barreira, D., Mariandyshev, A., ... & Pillay,
Y. (2014). Tuberculosis in BRICS: challenges and opportunities for leadership within
the post-2015 agenda. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 92(6), 459-460.
Fourie, W., van der Merwe, S. C., & Van Der Merwe, B. (2017). Sixty years of research on
leadership in Africa: A review of the literature. Leadership, 13(2), 222-251.
George, G., Corbishley, C., Khayesi, J. N., Haas, M. R., & Tihanyi, L. (2016). Bringing
Africa in: Promising directions for management research. Academy of Management
Journal, 59(2), 377-393.
Iwowo, V. (2015). Leadership in Africa: rethinking development. Personnel Review, 44(3),
408-429.
Johnson, C. E. (2017). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow.
London: Sage Publications, pp. 125-215.
Nkomo, S. M. (2015). Challenges for management and business education in a
“Developmental” state: The case of South Africa. Academy of Management Learning
& Education, 14(2), 242-258.
Obadare, E., & Adebanwi, W. (Eds.). (2016). Governance and the Crisis of Rule in
Contemporary Africa: Leadership in Transformation. Berlin: .Springer, pp. 105-225.

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