Political leadership, corruption, and the crisis of governance in Africa : a discourse

Abstract

Corruption is a common word often identified by scholars as a major barrier to growth and development. Every society condemns corrupt practices and often holds the leadership responsible. Across the globe, there are anti-corruption advocacy mechanisms aimed at promoting ethical leadership in government. The African Union, for instance, has adopted a series of continental anti-corruption protocols to assist member states curb the rising tide of corruption and its consequences on human security. Using a qualitative method of data collection and analysis, this paper interrogates the leadership-corruption nexus in relation to the prevailing crisis of governance in Africa. It argues that the nature of political leadership in Africa engenders the proclivity towards abuse of power. We find that entrenched vested interests of the political elite have promoted corruption and abuse of power as the instruments of governance, and has reduced requisite statutory institutional oversight structures, to ineffective mechanisms. While the crisis of governance dominates society with the attendant consequences, the political elite lives in opulence. The paper submits, therefore, that the crisis of governance occasioned by mismanagement of public resources by political leadership will continue to fester if citizens continue to support unethical practices by the political leaders.