Africa Needs Strong Institutions and Not Strong Men in Positions of Leadership
Journal Title: Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2016, Vol 4, Issue 10
Abstract
This paper articulates the need for a paradigm shift from transactional to transformational leadership in Africa. Over the past 5 decades most of African countries have experienced a lot of political instability that has posed great danger to economic growth and development. There has been systematic violation of human rights by leaders occupying positions of power without thinking of the adverse effects to the African states. It’s evident that in most countries in Africa that have had little or no democratic space due to existence of strong men in offices, they have consistently inconsistently been experiencing aggravating levels of poverty characterized by low standards of living, poor health and sanitation, poor housing and lack of access to social amenities. This kind of leadership that only serves the purpose of the status quo and not the public interest is mainly referred to as transactional leadership. Some African presidents have created tendencies of use of propaganda, blackmailing, threatening opposing forces as a tool to perpetually keep their regimes relevant through use of coercive powers. These strong men also exercise reward powers to reward their cronies and also make use of elite cooptation to silence the voice of the masses. Recently over 3 East Africa countries through use of instruments of power altered their constitutions so as to legitimate their perpetual greed of power to lead. Africa ought to rethink and replace strong men in office with creating a conducive and favorable political environment that facilitates the building of strong institutions through effective legislations in parliament that protects all independent institutions that have autonomy of exercising their powers in accordance with the constitution. This will nurture democracy and create confidence amongst the citizens of a given country and also ensure economic and development due to political stability and prevent abuse of power by greedy and selfish leaders. Keywords: Transformational Leadership; Institutions; Governance; Transactional Leadership, Democracy.
Authors and Affiliations
Stephen Nyamu Nduvi
Revisiting the Welfare of War Veterans in Zimbabwe
Abstract: The main thrust of the article is to examine the extent to which the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front led government handled the welfare of war veterans since 1980 to the present (2013). Guided b...
Analyzing the Acceptability of Customer Relationship Management Practices by Society
Today numerous meanings of CRM exist, one of the greatest advisor firms in the CRM market. Customer are presently like never before requesting an alternate association with their suppliers, dealing with a cozy relationsh...
PACE Your Class for Good Classroom Behavior Management
In a K-12 foreign language class, having good classroom behavior management skills is vital to learner success. If an instructor uses the target language during a grammar lesson and if the students do not comprehend the...
Association of Physical Activity and Body Mass Index among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study
Obesity is fast approaching cigarette smoking as the major preventable cause of mortality. The relationship between activity levels and body mass index is unclear, despite large number of studies. The purpose of this stu...
Teacher Education in Modern Scenario: Issues and Their Remedies
Teaching is a profession and teacher education is a process of professional preparation of teachers. Preparing one for a profession is an arduous task and it involves action from multiple fronts. Teachers themselves shou...