Nigeria is a nation polarized into sectional, religious and ethnic contestations leading to incessant crisis of leadership. The crisis of leadership in Nigeria reflects the national psyche of the Nigerian state as expressed by the political behaviour of its elites among others. This paper considers a framework of understanding the root causes and consequences of the incessant crisis of leadership in Nigeria and the implications of this crisis for national integration and nation-building. It identifies the way in which the Nigerian state was constituted, the divide and rule colonial policy, the ‘two publics’ mentality of its elites and the character of early nationalism as root causes of this crisis. It also proffers recommendations on the way forward including the sanctions against negative political behaviour, transcultural leadership and public enlightenment.

1. CRISIS OF LEARDERSHIP IN NIGERIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE:
AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW
BY
TANKO AHMED fwc
Senior Fellow
NIPSS, KURU
December 2012
1

2. INTRODUCTION
2

3. Background
A Polarized Nation
 A nation polarized by intense
sectionalism, tribalism, regionalis
m and religious bigotry is
configured for incessant ‘crisis of
leadership’ as a result of
dysfunctional conflicts.
 The resultant divisive process
places the various warring
factions in a state of continuous
struggle for supremacy in the
quest for ascendency, retention
or even sabotage of
leadership, depending on which
position they find themselves at
any given time.
3

4. Conflict
Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict
 Conflict has both ‘positive’ and
‘negative’ known as ‘functional’ or
beneficial conflict; and
‘dysfunctional’ or detrimental
conflict.
 Functional conflict supports the goals
of a nation while dysfunctional
conflict hinders and destroys such
goals.
 Dysfunctional conflict leads to
general decline in positive or
desirable outcomes in any given
situation (Freund, 2012) such as the
one we found ourselves in this
blessed and great nation called
Nigeria.
4

5. Traditional View
 Traditional discourse on ‘crisis
of leadership’ often takes the
perspective of leadership
purposefulness and
effectiveness in nation-
building, national integration
and national development.
 These perspectives often
ignore causal
factors, particularly the
afflictions within the nation’s
historical and current
experiences.
5

6. An Alternative View
 An ‘alternative view’ would
seek to diagnose the national
psyche of Nigeria;
and
 Attempt to explain possible
remote causes (or sources) of
the self-destructive conflicts
characterizing the ‘crisis of
leadership’ in Nigeria since
independence.
6

7. Guiding Questions
1. Do nations have national
‘psyche’ or ‘psychology’, like
humans?
2. Can nations be afflicted by
their past experiences as
manifest of present
conditions?
3. If so, is the incessant ‘crisis of
leadership’ in Nigeria,
connected to our collective
experience?
7

8. CONCEPTUAL
DISCOURSE
8

9. Crisis
Crisis
 Crisis is a dangerous or worrying
situation or period in which are
very uncertain, difficult or
painful, requiring immediate
action to avoid total disaster or
breakdown.
Crisis Situation
 Crisis situations often generate
instability and uncertainty; and
when superimposed on
leadership process, they could
spell doom to any recipient
entity.
9

10. Leadership
The Leader
 A leader is a guiding or directing head who
people follow, like head of a
family, group, community, institution, agency, g
overnment or country.
 Leadership, in this sense, is the ability to lead or
a process of influencing others in the
accomplishment of common tasks
(Chemers, 1997).
Leadership
 Leadership is best captured as a system
construct (Yukl, 2010) of interactive components
of the ‘leader’, the ‘follower(s)’ and the
‘situation’ within which activities take place.
 Leadership is the triad of the Leader, the
followership and the situation within which they
exist and interact in what is called ‘governing
arrangement’ (Ayeni-Akeke, 2008)
10

11. Theories of Leadership
 Contemporary leadership
theories are
complex, fragmented and
contradictory, making its study
frustrating for the scholar and its
application difficult for the
practitioner.
 It is, however, feasible to
integrate and reconcile these
theories and approaches in
search of common elements and
coherent perspectives.
 Studies on leadership have
produced theories involving
traits, situational
interaction, function, behaviour,
power, vision and values
(Richards and Engle, 1986) from
which a framework can be
constructed for the purpose of
this paper.
11

12. African Concept of
Leadership
 The African concept of Leadership
captures the triad of ‘leader-
follower-situation’ perfectly
 Africans generally consider society
to be a community, with leadership
designed to proceed toward the
common good, with leaders tied
directly to the people they led, and
vice versa.
 This is captured in the South African
Sotho proverb:
‘A Chief is a chief by the People; and
A People are a People through the
Chief’
- (Chemers, 1997)
12

13. Crisis of Leadership
 A clear-cut definition of ‘crisis of
leadership’ is a tricky business requiring
the mixture of ‘crisis’ and ‘leadership.
 To tally the breakdown of definitions
above, ‘crisis of leadership’ refers to a
dangerous or worrying situation;
 Or period in which are very
uncertain, difficult or painful events
requiring immediate action to avoid total
disaster;
 Or breakdown in the ability to lead or the
process of influencing others in the
accomplishment of common tasks.
 This is the definition of ‘crisis of leadership’
adopted for this paper.
13

14. NATIONAL
PSYCHE
AND
TRAUMATIC
EXPERIENCE
14

15. National Psyche
 A distinctive psychological make-up of
particular group, people or nation is often
observed and used in comparative studies in
social psychology, sociology, political
science and anthropology.
 This is on the assumption that such
group, people or nation feature a ‘mix’ of
human attitudes, values, emotions, motivation
and abilities (or inabilities), reinforced
institutionally.
 Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, the father of
‘experimental psychology’, had established
that the concept of ‘national psychology’ had
been an accepted topic of discourse in the
social sciences since mid-19th century
(Ash, 1980).
 That is to say, certain context of ‘psychology’
can be determined and applied in an
attempt to understand certain phenomenon
like the ‘crisis of leadership’.
15

16. Analogical Reasoning
 In analogical reasoning,
specific examples or cases, in
which what is known about
one example or case is used
to infer new information about
another example.
 In this wise, the basic principles
or features of a traumatic
experience and
consequences in human
psyche and behaviour are
applied to national experience
and subsequent behaviour of a
country, like Nigeria
16

17. Trauma, Stress and Disorder
 Trauma is an extreme distressing
experience that causes severe
and everlasting effect (or stress);
 Stress refers to strain caused by a
force or system of forces exerted
on a body or entity resulting in
deformation (or disorder); and
 Disorder signifies disturbance to
usual functioning of a system or
order of something. These are the
building blocks of the meaning of
‘post-traumatic stress disorder’.
17

18. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
is, therefore, a condition, often self-
destructive, caused by extreme
stress due to traumatic experience.
 PTSD has recently become the focus
for great deal of empirical and
theoretical work with a proposal that
traumas experienced at earlier
stage give rise to memory and
automatic re-enactment through
appropriate situational cues
(Brewin, et el, 1996).
 In plain language, present situation
of affairs are linked to past
experiences, and this can be
applied to diagnosis of ‘national
psychology’ of countries.
18

19. BACKGROUND, CA
USES
AND
CONSEQUENCES
OF
CRISIS OF
LEADERSHIP IN
NIGERIA
19

20. Background to Leadership Crisis
in Nigeria
Formation of Nigeria
 Nigeria evolved through the colonial
subjugation of hundreds of societies in the
territory between 1861 and 1914.
 By 1900, the British colonial government
after series of amalgamation of hundreds of
nationalities in the Southern and Northern
territories further amalgamated these
societies into two political blocks: Colony
and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and
the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.
 The two blocks were amalgamated in 1914
as a single political entity (Alemika and
Chukwuma, 2000).
 British colonialism created Nigeria, joining
diverse peoples and regions in a political
entity.
20

21. Background … (Cont.)
Nationalism and the Quest for
Independence
 The nationalism that became a
political factor in Nigeria during
the inter-war period derived both
from an older political
particularism and broad pan-
Africanism, rather than from any
sense among the people of a
common Nigerian nationality.
 The goal of activists initially was
not self-determination, but
increased participation on a
regional level in the
governmental process.
21

22. Causes of Leadership Crisis
in Nigeria
British Colonial Policies
 Inconsistencies in British policy
reinforced existing cleavages based
on regional animosities, as the British
tried both to preserve the indigenous
cultures of each area and to introduce
modern technology, and Western
political and social concepts.
 In the north, appeals to Islamic
legitimacy upheld the rule of the
emirs, so that nationalist sentiments
were related to Islamic ideals.
 Modern nationalists in the south, whose
thinking was shaped by European
ideas, opposed indirect rule, as they
believed that it had strengthened what
they considered an anachronistic
ruling class and shut out the emerging
Westernized elite.
22

23. Causes … (Cont.)
The Lethal Strategy of Divide and Rule
 The strategy of ‘divide and rule’ or ‘divide and
conquer’ is widely used in politics, military,
economic and social relations, with lethal
effect.
 It is, designed and applied, for the purpose of
gaining and maintaining power by breaking
up larger or stronger concentrations of power
into chunks that individually have less power
than the one implementing the strategy.
 The concept refers to a strategy that breaks
up existing power structures and prevents
smaller power groups from linking up.
 The use of this technique empowers the
‘manipulator’ to control subjects, populations,
or factions of different interests, who
collectively might be able to oppose the
‘status quo’.
23

24. Causes … (Cont.)
Elements of Divide and Rule
Policy
 creating or encouraging
divisions;
 aiding and promoting agents
of discord;
 fostering distrust and enmity
among people; and
 encouraging massive
mismanagement of resources.
24

25. Causes … (Cont.)
Colonialism as a Stressor
 A stressor is an agent or
condition or other stimulus that
causes stress to an organism.
 The divisive mentality
responsible for the ‘self-
destructive’ tendency within
the ‘crisis of leadership’ in
Nigeria is directly linked to
colonialism as the main
‘stressor’.
25

26. Consequences of Leadership
Crisis in Nigeria
The direct consequence of ‘colonial
stress’ is the emergence of the
‘divisive forces’, including:
 Sectionalism is the excessive
concern for the interests of one
group or area to the detriment of
the whole;
 Tribalism is the strong allegiance
or loyalty to a tribe or social
group than to national values;
 Regionalism is loyalty to home
region, state or other sub-
units, with prejudice in favour of
own area; and
 Religious bigotry is
intolerance, with strong
opinion, and refusal to accept
different views.
26

27. Seeds of Discord
 Political parties in Nigeria
sprang up mainly in opposition
to the Colonial Rule as far
back as 1920s;
 Between 1940-1960, more
groups emerged to speed up
the process of decolonization
and constitutional reforms;
 At independence they
metamorphosed into tribal-
cum-regional entities; and
 The issue of religion later
added a more dangerous
colouration. (Torkula, 2007)
27

28. THE WAY
FORWARD
28

29. The Golden Age of African
Empires
The ‘Golden Age’ of African
empires, particularly the period
between the 16th and 17th
centuries, in the West African
region, we had the once vibrant
Empires of Mali, Songhai and
Ghana .
These Empires were composed
of segmented and pyramidal
varieties of entities that were
successfully subjugated under
various ‘super imposed’ political
systems (Potholm, 1979).
29

30. Regular Mix and
Interdependence
 Long before the advent of
colonization, a remarkable
feature of African commercial
life was the practice of long
distance trade unhindered by
administrative jurisdictions
involving traffic and exchange
of highly valued commodities
with ‘strangers from other
cultures (Ade-Ajayi, 1988).
 Also, constant movement of
population was a
characteristic of pre-colonial
West Africa History
(Mobogunje, 1972).
30

31. Nigeria as a World of
Nations
 As identified by scholars
(Otitie, 2011), Nigeria has over 350
distinct ethnic groups, that is, with
more number of entities than the
United Nations.
 Nigeria is more of a ‘world of
nations’ than a ‘nation of the
world’.
 The peoples of Nigeria share many
social values and cultural traits
suggesting that they maintain a
high degree of homogeneity with a
long history of mixture and
relationships that it became
difficult to separate them into neat
socio-cultural groups, as often
claimed by extreme divisive views.
31

32. CONCLUSION
32

33. Summary
 Nigeria is a nation polarized by intense
sectionalism, tribalism, regionalism and religious
bigotry.
 These evil forces have their roots in the colonial
process leading to the formation of Nigeria as a
political entity.
 Traditional approach to discourse on ‘crisis of
leadership’ in Nigeria often revolves around the
issues of ‘who becomes what’, ‘from where’, ‘by
what means’ and ‘for how long’.
 An alternative view in this paper seeks to
diagnose the remote causes and establishes the
blame on colonialism as ‘stressor’ or remote
cause of the incessant ‘disorder’.
 Leadership in this context carries the triad of the
Leader, the Follower(s) and the Situation in which
they interact functionally.
 The way forward recalls the Golden Age of
African Empires composed of varieties of entities
existing under a certain measure of political
orderliness.

 Nigeria is more of a ‘world of nations’ than an
ordinary ‘nation of the world’ in which progress
would take place only in the absence of
dysfunctional conflicts
33

34. Conclusion
 All nations have ‘national
psyche’ that can be afflicted
by past experiences, as
manifested by current
conditions.
 The ‘crisis of leadership’ since
independence has its roots in
the colonial process of the
formation of Nigeria as a
political entity.
 The same divisive forces can
be transformed into
progressive tools for ‘unity in
diversity’.
34

35. Recommendations
 ‘Thinking outside the box’ of obsolete
traditional approaches is another way
of handling chronic issues like the
‘crisis of leadership’ in Nigeria, as
performed by the Alternative View
proffered in this paper.
 Events and platforms such as this
should be used for the propagation of
solutions to acute national problems to
bail out bulky memoranda, reports
and other ineffective means which
never saw the light of the day; and
 Institutions, agencies and departments
responsible for
enlightenment, mobilization and
implementation of national ideals are
to prove their effectiveness in
countering the evils of self-destructive
dysfunctional conflicts.
35

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37. THANK
YOU!
37

38. ABOUT THE LECTURER
 Tanko Ahmed, fwc, is a Senior Fellow (Security &
Strategic Studies) at the National Institute for
Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.
 He holds a first degree in Sociology from the
Richmond American International
University, London, UK and MSc in Strategic
Studies from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. At
present, he is working on a Ph.D Thesis in
Leadership Strategy.
 He is a Fellow of the National War College, now
Defence College. He is also the current General
Secretary of the Alumni Association of the
National Defence College (AANDEC).
 His latest academic publications include a book
chapter title: ‘Nigeria and the Challenges of
Nation Building: The Role of the Founding Fathers’
(2011) and a Monograph title: ‘Culture and
National Development in Nigeria’ (2012), among
others.
 Tanko Ahmed is married with four children and
loves playing Golf, Quail Farming and Martial
Arts.
38