“Why Nations Fail” to Develop

Abstract

This article focuses on the forces that prevent nations from developing politically, socially, and economically or why some of them have failed to achieve their purpose. It draws profusely from two inspiring books: Why Nations Fail and Leading From the Emerging Future to explore as to whether or not the political leaders of Nigeria can learn any lesson from the seminal work. The books concentrate on practical approaches that empower political leaders to shift their mind-sets to enable them to transform their extant extractive political and economic institutions that hinder national development. Unlike previous studies on leadership and development in Nigeria, which have observed that the system has been rendered unproductive by poor leadership, this article argues that the problem with Nigeria is that the political leaders have failed to shift their engrained mind-sets from “ego-system awareness to eco-system reality” to enable them to build and maintain effective institutions and infrastructure that drive the economy and develop the nations. It also argues that discussion about the leaders’ mind-set and national development deserves a different approach to transform the nation’s ossified institutions into innovative and creative ones. This will encourage the leaders to collectively shift their mental models to design and implement growth policies that will fit into the 21st-century economy and empower them to lead from the emerging future.