The Impact of Leadership and Governance on Nation Building in 21st Century Africa

Abstract

Since the attainment of independence by most African countries in 1960, regarded as the golden year of Africa, the problem of leadership and issues of good governance have continued to have devastating impact on nation building in Africa. Indeed, with the exit of the first-generation leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, etc. Who were more foresighted and pragmatic than the current leaders, has remained problematic for Africa? This paper argues that in addition to the aforementioned problems other critical issues of ethnicity, religious crises, boundary¬ border disputes inherited from the colonial era, good governance, refugee crises, election disputes such as the recent one in Kenya, terrorism in Nigeria , Mali, Somalia, the coup d’états such as the recent one in the Central African Republic, coupled with the weakness of African Union, have equally continued to have deteriorating and concomitant effect on the process of nation building in Africa especially in this second decade of the 21st century. The methodology for this paper is based on a multidisciplinary approach and historical perspective.