LEADERSHIP AS THE CAUSE OF NIGERIA DEMOCRATIC AND ECONOMIC BACKWARDNESS A STUDY OF 2015-2023 GENERAL ELECTION

ABSTRACT This research study seeks to examine leadership as the cause of Nigeria’s democratic and economic backwardness. The study demonstrated that since t6he end of colonial rule, forty-five years ago, the nation had about ten leaders out of which only three were democratically elected while others forced their ways through the barrel of the gun-coup d’tat. Drawing from Socrates analysis, the advancement of any state largely depends on the qualities of leadership, how they positively actualize the vision of the society on assumption of office. It is also their task to tend the souls of their entire fellow citizens and making them as good as possible. The study also found out that the leadership problem as the cause of both democratic and economic backwardness have ultimately delayed the political and economic development at large in the whole country. Socrates, “The radical vices of democracy are that of putting society in the hands of men without true insight and with no adequate knowledge”. The leaders are only interested in themselves on their self-ambitions instead of the larger community they supposed to serve.