Character Training as a Prophylactic to Leadership-Followership Divergence in Nigeria’s Quest for Peace and Development.

Abstract

There has been proliferation of concerns on political leadership in most sub-Saharan Africa. Scholars have unequivocally identified nepotism, greed, ethnicity, religious chauvinism, and corruption of the leaders as the bane of development. In contradistinction, successive leaders have accused the followers of exhibiting unpatriotic attitudes to policies consciously designed to facilitate societal peace and development. These divergent opinions are the secondary catalyst that hinders the positive transformation of African society. Primarily, is the neglect of shared moral values by both the leaders and the led. The fundamental task of this paper, therefore, is how the disjuncture in value orientation between the leaders and the followers can be forestalled and meaningful development enhanced. Also, to identify ways by which the visions of the leaders and the aspirations of the followers can be reconciled to achieve the desired transformation. The paper argues for the cultivation of core moral values of trust, honesty, transparency, concerns for others, justice and, active participation in governance. In achieving this, effective character training at all levels of the society’s moral infrastructure is necessary. The paper recognizes the inherent difficulties in achieving this goal among the untrainable elders and aged ones hence, the prescription of sanctions on deviants. The paper adopts the analytic and prescriptive approaches of the qualitative method of research to clarify relevant terms and to recommend that, the ethical leaders and followers required for the development of African society are better achieved through character training that focuses on core moral values and civic participation of both the leaders and followers.