Politics, Good Governance and The Imperative of Leadership Mentoring

Abstract

The success or failure of governance is determined primarily by the quality of leadership overseeing the affairs of the entity in question. In a democracy, good-governance is berthed when political leadership is nurtured from the onset by a deliberate leadership mentoring process that inculcates the values of transparency, accountability, responsibility, productivity and efficiency on the mentee. This paper in its hypothesis, ties up the three key variables of politics, good governance and leadership mentoring, proffering the latter as the foundational tonic needed to nurture, grow and institutionalise a culture of effective political leadership, good-governance and progressively-working institutions for the benefit of the nation (Nigeria) and its citizens. Case study examples are drawn from the People’s Republic of China and India as nations which have harnessed and optimised suitable leadership mentoring processes to raise and nurture leaders who have gone on to facilitate the growth and development of their respective nations. This paper, which harps on Nigeria, concludes by recommending the institutionalisation of structured leadership-mentoring schemes and their liberalisation nationwide as critical paths to nurturing upcoming and young actors across, political parties, civil society, educational institutions and the society in general, with the requisite leadership ethics, ethos, skill and capacity to positively impact governance for the good and development of the nation.