A Review of 'Leading from the Emerging Future': Any Lesson for Nigerian Leaders?

Abstract

This article reviews Leading from the Emerging Future and explores as to whether or not the political leaders of Nigeria can learn any lesson from it. This book concentrates on practical approach that empowers leaders to shift their mindsets from ego-system awareness to eco-system reality to enable them to transform the extant extractive economic and political institutions that hinder national development. Unlike previous studies on leadership and change in Nigeria, which have simply observed that the system has been rendered unproductive for decades by poor leadership, this article argues that the problem with Nigeria is that the political leaders have failed to shift their engrained mindsets from ‘ego-system awareness to eco-system’ to build effective institutions to drive the economy. It also argues that discussion of the issue of leadership in the society deserves a different approach to change the ossified institutions into innovative and creative ones as this would inspire the leaders to collectively shift their mental models to design and implement policies that would fit into the 21st century economy and empower them to lead from the emerging future.