The African Symposium: An online journal of the African Educational Research Network LEADERSHIP CRISIS AND CORRUPTION IN THE NIGERIAN PUBLIC SECTOR: AN ALBATROSS OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT David Imhonopi Moses Urim Ugochukwu Covenant University Abstract The public sector of every nation is critical to its national development. Through its ministries, departments and agencies, government puts in place policies, programmes and services that help galvanise development at all levels, engender economic progress and increase trust and connection between the managers of the state and the people. In Nigeria, the public sector has become an epitome of all that is corrupt, mediocre and fraudulent. Self-preservation is preferred to national interest and the leadership crisis prevalent at all levels of decision-making has further deepened the imbroglio. Thus, Nigeria has lost traction in its attempt to achieve national development because of the invidious climate of “chop-I-chop” politics, ethnicity, mediocrity, partisanship, cronyism, corrupted process of recruitment of leaders, among other factors. This study has identified the albatross to national development in Nigeria as a spin-off of the leadership crisis and corruption prevalent in its public sector and made valuable recommendations. Key words: leadership crisis, corruption, public sector, Nigeria, national development INTRODUCTION It is an axiom that Nigeria is richly endowed by providence with human and material resources critical for national development and advancement. However, since gaining political independence, Nigeria has continued to meander the path befitting failed, weak and “juvenile” states. A state that had very great prospects at independence and was touted to lead Africa out of the backwoods of underdevelopment and economic dependency, Nigeria is still stuck in the league of very poor, corrupt, underdeveloped, infrastructurally decaying, crisis-riven, morally bankrupt and leadership-deficient countries of the South. Rather than become an exemplar for transformational leadership, modern bureaucracy, national development, national integration and innovation, Nigeria seems to be infamous for whatever is mediocre, corrupt, insanely violent and morally untoward. Thus, one cannot but agree with the position that Nigeria is a victim of poor leadership and convoluted systemic corruption which has become pervasive and cancerous in the country’s national life. This view has been held strongly in literature by scholars and writers who have identified the inexorable nexus between leadership crisis and corruption in the country as the continued reason for Nigeria’s inglorious economic throes, political convolutions and national underdevelopment. Current debates rest on the conclusion that Nigerian leadership suffers from extreme moral depravity and attitudinal debauchery (Agbor, 2011; Agbor, 2012; Ezirim, 2010; Ebegbulem, 2009; Ogbunwezeh, 2007). In fact, Agbor argues that the success or failure of any society depends largely on the mannerism of its leadership. He adds that the result of poor leadership in Nigeria is embodied as poor governance manifested in consistent political crisis and insecurity, poverty of the extreme order among the citizens, debilitating miasma of corruption and rising unemployment indices. Tipping corruption as a dinosaur syndrome in Nigeria’s national life (anon, 2010), Nigeria’s nationhood has been caught in the whirlpool of a corrupt public sector that has remained a hotbed of all that is vice, sleazy and retrogressive. While not exclusive to Nigeria, a report considers corruption to be one of the most chronic macroeconomic problems confronting most African countries today (ACBF, 2007). It is seen as the root cause of the various economic and political crises that have plagued the African region, and continues to aggravate not only the problem of underdevelopment of each country, but also that of abject poverty of the citizenry. For example, political corruption is the cause of sit-tight political leaders, especially in Africa, with constitutional amendments making them eligible to contest presidential elections as long as they wish. The ability to continue to control state power enables them to allocate national resources as they wish. This promotes wanton, suboptimal allocation of national resources, and the ensuing macroeconomic mismanagement which result in persistent economic cataclysm. Although not a Nigerian phenomenon, the specter of corruption seems to haunt the nation and has permeated the entire fabric of state. Aided by leadership crisis bedeviling the nation, 78 Volume 13, No. 1, June 2013 The African Symposium (ISSN# 2326-8077)