Servant Leadership: A Powerful Paradigm for Effective Leadership in Africa

Lack of good leadership is the greatest undoing of African progress. Unfortunately, good leadership for Africans is not just mirroring the western leadership system but adapting to a style of leadership that is attractive to African people’s way of life and effective for African people’s development and wellbeing. Because leadership is a crucial determining factor for the success of all economic, political, and organizational structures, determining an essential leadership style for a nation-state largely depends on how suitable the style can fit into the complex challenges facing such a nation-state. Considering the viability and profitability of the servant leadership style in Africa due to its suitability to the African worldview, this paper examines why the leadership style is preferred in the African context. Toulmin Argumentation Model (TAM) is employed to explain how the servant leadership style is adjudged the best to generate credible leaders that will move Africa forward in terms of catching up with other great economically and politically viable powers