Ethical Leadership, Corruption and Irresponsible Governance: Rethinking the African Dilemma

In the face of current events in the global community, Africa cannot afford to lag-behind in pursuing a meaningful sustainable development in all strata. The current crisis of relevance of the African societies in the comity of nations is traceable to the obvious poverty, under development, irresponsive and irresponsible governance, illegitimate political administrations, prolonged military administrations, martial social and economic systems, repressive policies, and etc. This paper employed qualitative method of research dwelling on the use of secondary data, analyzed through the method of content and descriptive analysis. From the secondary data gathered and analyzed, it was discovered that the dilemma of the African societies is the absence of public spirited leadership which these writers preferred to refer to as Ethical Political Leadership. A society either rises or falls depending on the kind of leadership within its system. This paper therefore concluded that Africa needs this style of leadership that is first and foremost people-oriented. The absence of this has been the bane of any meaningful development in Africa. If we must develop and transverse this level of living at the mercy of the international organizations and almost absolute reliance on development assistance, African political leaders must rise to the responsibility of engendering a social system that will reduce corruption in both public and private spheres, and must also get involved in outright formulation and implementation of policies that will enhance the self-realization of the African citizens. Above all, this paper recommends the need for moral education in Africa. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n6p48