An appraisal of leadership challenges and Nigeria’s development: Perspectives from citizens of Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper appraised the leadership challenges and Nigeria’s overall development. The paper is premised against the background of the humongous development challenges in Nigeria, in the midst of burgeoning human and material resources. Further providing background for this paper is the current Nigeria’s position in the global poverty index, the increasing number of out of school children, the deteriorating rate of employment, the declining Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other indexes of development. Aimed at finding out the correlation between leadership and development, as well as ascertaining the prevailing attitude of Nigerian leaders towards development, this paper used the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Contingency as its theoretical underpinnings. The paper adopted a survey research design, using Anambra State as the area of study. From a population of 8,252, 998 citizens in Anambra State, a simple size 400 residents were drawn for the paper using the Taro Yameni’s formula. The paper adopted a multi- stage sampling technique and used questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. The paper concludes that to truly clean up the bad leadership and corruption, Nigeria needs sound ethical leadership that is rooted in respect, service, justice, honesty and community. It was recommended that leaders should have good moral conduct and ethical responsibility to enable them attend to the demands, concerns, needs, and problems of the citizens in the country.