Civility in the Lion’s Den: Leadership Selection and Retrenchment in the First Republic

Abstract

According to the current chapter and the two that follow, regardless of the compelling need to match new challenges with new competencies, Nigeria’s leadership selection and retrenchment practices have not changed in any radical way since independence. With the possible exception of the career bureaucracy which has developed formal and relatively sophisticated, if not consistently foolproof, methods for selecting and retrenching its leadership cadre, political associations (and to a large extent, their civic counterparts) have yet to come to an understanding on the criteria against which aspiring leaders would be selected, and the conditions under which the mandates of incumbents would be renewed or terminated.

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character.

—Chinua Achebe