SOLVING LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES IN AFRICA: A REFLECTION FROM

PHILIP KOTLER’S LEADERSHIP PHENOMENON.

1UchennaNwankwo, 2Udochukwu Ogbaji and 3Dr. (Mrs) Rose Nwankwo1National Salaries and Wages Commission,

Abuja, Nigeria.Email:uche77ng@yahoo.com

2&3 Department of Public Administration,Federal Polytechnic, OkoAnambra State Nigeria

Email: udojoel77@yahoo.ca

Abstract

African leadership and development challenges are as complex as they are multi- faceted. Their resolution ultimately depends on the capacity of people to understand what is happening around them, both internally and externally. They must possess enhanced ability to be able to take appropriate steps and cope with a variety of problems surrounding them. The millennium began with an optimistic mood, which even extended to the adoption of ambitious goals for Africa’s development. Fuelling the optimism was heady economic growth and development, driven forward by democracy and democratization and the endorsed Millennium Declaration that marked the culmination of decades of efforts by the United Nations. Ten years later, this optimism to address root causes of poverty, ignorance, diseases, environmental degradation and other chronic ‘socio-political and economic problems’ suffers stagnation and despair. The failure of the leadership class has continually become a stormy threat to this perceived optimism in Africa. At a time of this lowering expectation, it is important not to succumb to fatalism. It seems so obvious that it is worth reconsidering solving the leadership challenges in Africa, drawing from Philip Kotler’s leadership phenomenon. This paper argue that leaders do not need charisma to be effective; rather they are friendly, approachable, and caring; pursuing people oriented goods as well as run open- door policies. This paper adopts content analysis, personal opinions and observations, commentaries and editorials on the concept of leadership. This paper derives reflection from Philip Kotler’s views on leadership and situates it with the leadership question in Africa. Also, this paper carries out an unsentimental analysis to reveal the nature and challenges of leadership in Africa as well as proffering practical approaches to solving leadership challenges in Africa, in order to elevate the optimism and enhance the path to development by Africans for Africans.

1

Introduction

In the dawn of the 21st century, the emerging African paradigm reflects a need for democratic

capacity building – one that invites diverse communities into a participatory process with

leadership. The millennium began with an optimistic mood, which even extended to the

adoption of ambitious goals for Africa’s development. Fuelling the optimism was heady

economic growth and development, driven forward by democracy and democratization and the

endorsed Millennium Declaration that marked the culmination of decades of efforts by the

United Nations. Ten years later, this optimism to address root causes of poverty, ignorance,

diseases, environmental degradation and other chronic ‘socio-political and economic problems’

suffers stagnation and despair. The failure of the leadership class has continually become a

stormy threat to this perceived optimism in Africa.

Going by Philip Kotler’s understanding of leadership, if management is defined as getting

things done through others, then leadership should be defined as the social and informal sources

of influence that you use to inspire action taken by others. It means mobilizing others to want to

struggle toward a common goal. Great leaders help build an organization’s human capital, and

then motivate individuals to take concerted action. Leadership also includes an understanding of

when, where, and how to use more formal sources of authority and power, such as position or

ownership. Increasingly, we live in a world where good management requires good leaders and

leadership. While these views about the importance of leadership are not new, competition

among employers and countries for the best and brightest, increased labour mobility, and hyper-

competition puts pressure on organization to invest in present and future leadership capabilities.

This paper adopts content analysis, personal opinions and observations, commentaries and

editorials on the concept of leadership. This paper derives reflection from Philip Kotler’s views

on leadership and situates it with the leadership question in Africa. Also, this paper carries out

analysis to reveal the nature and challenges of leadership in Africa as well as approaches to

solving leadership challenges in Africa, in order to elevate the optimism.

2

Philip Kotler’s Leadership Phenomenon

Phillip Kotler, known as “the father of Modern Marketing and a leading personality in modern

management, in his book “Marketing Insights from A TO Z, 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs

to know”, reiterated the importance of quality leadership. According to Kotler (2003):

“all managers should be leaders, but most are administrators. If you are spending most of your time on budget, organisation’s charts, costs, compliance, and detail, you are an administrator. To become a leader, you need to spend more time with people, scanning opportunities, developing a vision, and setting goals. A leader is the architect of the organisation’s goals and vision. Leaders need to be teachers and teach others to be leaders”.

Bad managers, in contrast, rely on command and control to get their ideas carried out. A

business leader’s job is “to make meaning”. The leader needs vision. Vision is “the art of seeing

things invisible”. Vision is the ability to conjure up a picture of great opportunities to inspire the

employees and the organisation’s stakeholders. The vision must be burn in the leader’s breast if

it is to ignite a passion in others. The leader must be able to gain respect for his vision and as a

person. The followers must believe that the leader is serving them, that he or she is a servant-

leader (Kotler, 2003). In Reinventing Leadership: Strategies to Empower the Organization

(2005), Bennis and Townsend discuss their concise leadership plan for the 21st century that

reinvented leadership strategies and aims to empower both employees and organization. They

focus on: moving away from conventional standards of business practice, building trust, finding

a mentor to encourage reflective backtalk and rewarding accomplishment. No wonder,

Napoleon said that “A leader is a dealer in hope”. Robert Townsend observed that “true

leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders” and that

“A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his

people so that they can get on with their jobs”. Leadership works best and extra-ordinarily when

there are committed followers, who stir up the vision of their leader.

3

Kotler stressed that, some think that great leaders need charisma, and point to people or

personalities such as Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill. They are forgetting Harry

Truman; the thirty-third President of the United States, whose one of his important decisions

was the use of the atomic bombs in Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945). In the

light of the above instance, leaders do not need charisma to be effective. Charismatic leaders are

often suspects. Some of the greatest business and organizational leaders went about their work

in a quiet way touching the minds and hearts of their staff. They are friendly, approachable, and

caring; pursuing people oriented goods as well as run an open- door policies (Kotler, ibid).

They act as role models. Remember Charles R. Walgreen III, who transformed Walgreen

Company into a company whose cumulative stock returns since 1975 have beaten the general

stock market by over 15 times. Yet, he never takes credit, pointing instead to his great team, and

he pins his success on being “lucky”. Katherine Graham of the Washington Post was another

quiet leader who built a great newspaper into a greater one. This is in line with what Chinese

Philosopher Lao-tzu said “a leader is best when people barely know that he exists”. In the words

of Harry Truman,

“a man cannot have character unless he lives with

a fundamental system of morals that creates character”

Leadership is character –oriented and character-motivated. The best leaders want to surround

themselves with talented characters. They revel in finding these categories of professionals who

are smart than they are. The main task of a leader is to build a team of experts who are aligned

with each other the primary goals of the company or organization.

It is important to note that good leaders do not want yes-men. A good leader should be able to

fire those who agree with him, especially at all times. Good leaders want the honest of their

colleagues. They encourage constructive debates and out-of-the-box thinking. They invite big-

picture ideas. They tolerate honest mistakes. And when they make the final decision, they

inspire and mobilize their people to do their best. And the best leaders do not spend too much

time poring over numbers. They get out and meet the troops. They devote a lot of time to major

players.

4

At the same time, the job of a leader is daunting. It is not all about playing golf with other

business/organizational leaders. One CEO said “I am only comfortable when I am

uncomfortable”. When Dick Ferris, former CEO of United Air Lines, was asked how he sleeps

in tumultuous time, he said, “Just like a baby—I wake up every two hours and cry.”

Yet the leader must be more optimist than a pessimist. He must see the cup as half full rather

than half empty. He is mostly tested when the times are tough. It is a rough sea that can make a

great captain. And Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States, defined a leader

as…a man who can persuade people to do what they do not want to do, or do what they are too lazy to do and like it (Truman, H.,1884 -1972).

Warren Bennis, widely known as a modern leadership guru, identified six personal qualities of a

good leader- integrity, dedication, magnanimity, humility, openness and creativity. Bennis

summarized by defining leadership as, the capacity to translate vision into reality. In line with

Warren Bennis’ categorization, David Hakala, adds fairness, assertiveness and display of a

sense of humour as other personal qualities of a good leader (Hakala, 2008).

To this end, what insight can we generate from the above reflection? What are the leadership

challenges in Africa? It therefore, behooves on the writers to attempt a review of the questions

stated above so as to make good conclusion on the subject matter.

The Leadership Challenges in Africa

Gardner (1990) defines leadership as ‘the process of persuasion or example by which an

individual induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and

his or her followers’. In the African context, it was often the case that post-independence

national leadership was of the so-called ‘big man’ style. In this form of leadership, decision

making over the distribution of resources, power, and authority was (and still is to a limited

extent) exclusively controlled by the president. To the extent that objectives were participatory,

state leaders mainly involved a tightly controlled group of political elites (Warfield and

Sentongo, 2011).

5

Twelve years into the millennium, the optimism to address root causes of poverty, ignorance,

diseases, environmental degradation and other chronic ‘socio-political and economic problems’

suffers stagnation and despair. A lot have been elucidated above on what leadership is meant to

represent. However, in the context of the theme of this work, the reality is far from the

principles and thoughts enumerated above. Leadership and socio-political and economic

empowerment is the key to Africa's future. Those are the words of Ecologist Wangari Maathai.

Expressing her view in her book ‘Challenges for Africa and the problems facing the African

Continent’, Maathai (2009) says that the real challenge for Africa is working with the leadership

of the countries.

"We live on a continent that is extremely rich, highly fertile and with a lot of resources and minerals. There is absolutely no reason why we are poor except we have been having very poor leadership for so many decades".

Commenting from the above assertion, African leaders should really help Africa to get out of

this cycle of violence and poverty and refuse to be exploited by the rest of the world. Kagame

(2010) observed that:

poor political leadership was to blame for Africa’s share of conflicts and regional instability, which could only end if the region embraced good leadership and proper electoral laws that encourage political inclusiveness. Just as a failed state is a result of failed leadership, it takes a different type of leadership to build a nation.

It is a truism that, the principle and practice of good leadership is not yet developed in most

African states, Nigeria inclusive. What ineffective leadership has caused Africa is

immeasurable. Franz Fanon in his book 'The Wretched of the Earth' published in 1961

eloquently described the character of the class that inherited power from the colonialists.

According to Fanon (1961):

It is "a sort of little greedy caste, avid and voracious, with the mind of a huckster, only too glad to accept the dividends that the former colonial powers hands out.

6

This get-rich-quick middle class shows itself incapable of great ideas or of inventiveness. It remembers what it has read in European textbooks and imperceptibly it becomes not even the replica of Europe, but its caricature." This class, said Fanon prophetically, is not capable of building industries "it is completely canalized into activities of the intermediary type. Its innermost vocation seems to be to keep in the running and to be part of the racket. The psychology of the national bourgeoisie is that of a businessman, not that of a captain of industry."

The description remains accurate for today's elite who have grown through civilian politics,

military governments, business and the civil service.

Certainly, African nations suffer from poor administrative, inadequate judicial infrastructure

and insufficient numbers of expertise. But these short-comings cannot explain the abuse and

misuse of state power in the continent. The fact remains that most African rulers have ignored

the provisions of the constitution and laid-down administrative procedures. Leaders act selfishly

with total disregard to existing rules and laid-down procedures.

The failure of democracy and economic development in Africa are due to a large part to the

scramble for wealth by predator elites, who have dominated African politics since

independence. They see the state as a source of personal wealth accumulation, using state fund

to finance ungodly political interests which are anti-civil society. Many of the apparently

senseless civil conflicts and wars in Africa, including in Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda and Darfur

region of Sudan, are due to the battle for the spoils of power. The competition for national

resources leads to conflict and repression, hence, the ruling classes, including people in and

outside government (cartel/cronies), are motivated by objectives that have little to do with the

common good.

African’s tragedy is not that its nations are poor. No, the continent is not poor. The tragedy is

that it lacks ruling classes that are committed to overcoming the state of poverty. Mostly it is all

about politicking, rarely about human-oriented policies and programmes. Political actors are

those who compete among themselves for power, not actors who use power to confront their

country’s problems. In the Nigerian national assembly, those who address themselves as

honourable members engage in both verbal and physical assault; all in the name of politics,

7

appropriation of interest and above all consolidation of interest for second/third term of office.

This has jeopardized so many developing democracies in Africa. It’s a pity. No wonder, In

President Obama maiden speech in sub-Saharan Africa he stressed that “good governance is the

change that can unlock Africa's potential and emphasized that it is the ingredient which has

been missing in many places for far too long”. Obviously, it is quality leadership that can

perpetuate good governance in Africa.

In Africa where only 6 countries are in the upper middle-income category, at least 38 countries

are classified as low-income (ADB, 2003). In World Bank terms, Africa is today caught in a

low-equilibrium development trap, just as Asia was in the 1960s. With the exception of

Botswana which has emerged ‘from rags to riches’, the lot of countries and peoples in Africa

remains a precarious existence.

Other paradoxes of Africa’s development experience are declining savings and investment per

capita since 1970. In the light of the above, the GDP is lowered and investment rates are

comparatively lower to other regions of the World and productivity on investments is

diametrically disappointing. Africa’s share of world trade has also plummeted to less than 3 per

cent, resulting in high and persistent balance of payment and inflation problems crippling and

effectively worsening prospects of a quick economic recovery. Apparently, this dramatically

affects the so-called ‘Foreign Reserve’.

Moreover, another effect of bad leadership in Africa is that economic and social policies

pursued by most African countries are counter-productive and inimical to rapid economic

growth. As a result, the state and its technocrats substitute and prevent the emergence of an

entrepreneurial class. This has reduced the state to an avenue for capital accumulation for those

with access to state resources through ‘blind forces’ which culminated in a ‘deliberate policy of

spoils and plundering of public coffers by the ruling elite’. For two or more decades, African

governments of both leftist and rightist ideological orientations assumed greater control over

economic affairs, often advancing policies that facilitated governmental corruption. In effect,

this aside crippling African societies; it is bleeding their potential. It tends to freeze technical

initiatives, which Kindleberger terms technological ‘fossilization’ (Kindleberger, 1958:301).

8

It is informative to realize that there are certain domestic elements, which through non-

economic, have influenced Africa’s harsh economic realities. Such factors as incessant political

instability, authoritarian regimes and unprogressive attitudes have impacted negatively on

economic growth (Ayittey, 1992). Fragile political institutions created by poor leadership create

insurmountable barriers to economic prosperity, especially in welfare states. Myriad military

coups and dictatorships partly account for Nigeria’s, Ghana’s and Niger’s economic crisis;

while civil war in Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sierra Leone, Angola,

Somalia, Liberia and Darfur have paralyzed growth of their economies. In countries with

authoritarian regimes like Malawi under Banda, Nigeria, in the days of Abacha Junta, and

Zimbabwe still under President Mobutu and many other examples, long term economic

objectives and strategies were replaced by myopic, short-term policies like large public sector

deficits to support politically determined projects. This scenario reflects conflicts between

economic and political rationality, which according to Schatz (1988), enshrines government

schemes providing opportunities for graft, and political patronage.

Dishearteningly, African states are victims of their own specialization in primary production,

which is subject to ever declining terms of trade. This is why countries like Nigeria bases its

annual budget estimate on the wavering crude oil price in the international market. Is it not

because of ineptitude on the part our leaders? Yes, it is. Poor leadership has brought about gross

inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the domestic production capacity, thus, the local refineries

are in comatose situation, which would have promoted increased production if it were in the

developed economies. This supports why African producers of primary products can not have

control over production.

With the failures highlighted above, African leaders to a large extent are not good students of

Phillip Kotler’s view about leadership. According to Professor Kotler (ibid):

“all managers should be leaders, but most are administrators. If you are spending most of your time on budget, organisation’s charts, costs, compliance, and detail, you are an administrator. To become a leader, you need to spend more time with people, scanning opportunities, developing a vision, and setting goals”.

9

A leader is the architect of the organisation’s goals and vision. In situating this conception with

the leadership style of most African leaders, one could easily note a wide gap. There exist

organizational gap, leaders are not accessible, and thus they spend much of their tenure pursuing

selfish business trips abroad. Because of non-performance, African leaders surround themselves

with aids, in form of security men in order to ward-off the people from them.

Solving the Leadership Challenges in Africa

If the 21st century African leader (and here we flatten the definition to include a range of

leadership at different levels in society) is to stimulate democratic capacity building in

communities, this individual must first learn the process of managing or mitigating conflict to

build a community’s capacity for sustainable peace and development (Warfield and Sentongo,

2011). Burns (1978) recognized that leadership emerges in response to conflict. Indeed, one

could argue that conflict gives depth and perspective to leadership. In the African context, this

refers not only to the typically understood intra-state conflict, but to the proliferation of conflict

taking place at the local level as well. Conflict is a catalytic agent for transformation, and

conflict mitigation is the tool that negotiates this transformation.

Lederach (1997 as cited in Warfield and Sentongo, 2011) provides a model of how one can

examine leadership at various levels, ranging from top level to leadership at the grassroots.

Lederach envisions three levels of leadership. At the top (Level 1) are the regime elites,

politicians, religious leaders, and the military who engage in highly visible negotiations at the

state level. At Level 2, Lederach locates intellectuals, ethnic leadership, regional or local

religious leaders, and heads of recognized non- governmental organizations (NGOs). These are

individuals who are most likely to be engaged in negotiations with Level 1 over the

implementation of national policy. Such was the case in Rwanda where individuals who headed

up humanitarian organizations were involved with Level 1 in the implementation of gacaca and

ingando programmes, as part of the national reconciliation programme. Level 3 is where the

grassroots leadership resides. Here we find indigenous community leaders of one sort or another

who tend to be engaged in the struggle for bringing more resources to their local population. Of

course, these are not rigid divisions. In some post-conflict developing countries there is mobility

as some Level 2 actors will be pulled into Level 1 and Level 3 actors can move to Level 2.

10

In practical terms therefore, one can understand that, the enormity and complexity of, the

challenges confronting the continent demands a multifaceted approach in dealing with them but

the question is where exactly do we start from? Faced with all these daunting challenges;

illiteracy, poverty, instability, where do we take off? The foundation of all the economic

policies, poverty reduction strategies and development goals, including the implementation of

the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), rest on effective leadership which engenders good

governance. Ensuring environmental sustainability requires effective and efficient leadership.

The key to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, rest on quality leadership, the catalyst to

achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women is

good leadership. The vital weapon to promoting peace and security as well as post-war

reconstruction in Africa is quality leadership. The whole clamour for an electoral reform and

democratic consolidation in Africa takes its root in good leadership.

Our governments and leaders must recognize that, faced with the same economic constraints

and economic marginalization in the global economic system, countries like China, India,

Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea just to mention a few have spurred their economies to

appreciable height even though there is still some room for improvement. Today the progress of

these countries has shifted the development paradigm and the hegemony in the global economic

system has taken a twist. Little did the world know that these countries could emerge economic

giants, flex their economic muscles and rival the dominance of the West in the global economic

system. Africa's socio-economic fortunes have hope but this hope will only experience result

and witness development on the principles of good leadership.

Some African living legends, like Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan have high hopes in a new

Africa. According to Nelson Mandela:

“I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses turning to become a glory to Africa”.

In the view of solving the disheartening Africa’s problems, Kofi Annan advocates that:

“we need to continue fighting corruption, we need to build strong institutions and I think we need to eliminate red-tape and bureaucracy; we must develop strong institutions that

11

would engender good governance and democratic consolidation”.

In a related development, African leaders do not need to acquire charisma before they could

transform the continent and harness the great potential. Rather they could make important

decisions and match it with actions. They are to be friendly, approachable, and caring; poised to

pursue people oriented goods. The kinds of leaders that will transform Africa are those that will

act as role models; those who will always go for success. They are to make both constructive

and progressive debate in the comity of nations. In the face of international community, they

should be fearless and doggedly maintaining unwavering position, especially as it concerns

economic and political affairs of the continent, when the ‘super-powers’ begin with their power

politics and diplomacy. Optimism should be their greatest value, as Kotler posits.

Regrettably, being the leading area for diamonds, cobalt, uranium, and many other rare

minerals, the continent is still wallowing in the dungeons of poverty and plague of

underdevelopment. For instance, Nigeria with all the oil deposits has not inched up significantly

in its developmental goals and objectives. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the

richest countries in diamonds, gold, timber, cobalt, yet it has little to show for them. Talk of the

gold mines of Ghana, Oil fields of Sudan, Angola but yet the continent has failed to make

significant impact in improving the living standards of its people. Despite the Continent's

seemingly abundant resources, ineffective leadership has raided the continent of its destiny.

In conclusion therefore, position captures that transformative leadership need to be equated with

what Greenstone and Peterson (1973 as cited in Warfield and Sentongo, 2011) call orthodox

liberalism: essentially, a broad redistribution of goods and services by the state. As we have

noted in one way or another, transformative leadership has to balance constitutional democracy

(often under pressure from international actors) with utilitarian democracy where needs and

interests of grassroots leadership are stimulated. In this sense, transformative (political)

leadership can be better described as pragmatic liberalism. Or putting it another way, pragmatic

realism where procedural democracy (in this instance, the distribution of power) is occasionally

sacrificed to produce the ‘greater good’. In Nigeria today, the President Goodluck Jonathan’s

transformational mandate and fresh-air phenomenon would only answer to good and quality

leadership which can only build Nigeria’s capacity for sustainable peace and development.

12

References

Africa Development Bank. 2003 Review.

Annan, K. ‘Realization of Africa’s Unity and Development’ CNN Interview: June 2010

Ayittey, G. (1992). Africa Betrayed. New York NY: St. Martin’s Press

Burns, J.M (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.

Fanon, F. (1967). The Wretched of the Earth. England: Penguin Books Ltd.

Gardner, J. W. (1990). On Leadership. New York: Free Press.

Hakala, D. (2008). ‘Ten Top Leadership Qualities HR World March 19. Accessed March, 22nd

2010

Kagame, P. ‘Poor Leadership in Africa’. Afrique en Ligne. Accessed May 2010

Kindleberger, C.P. (1958). Economic Development: New York, NY: The Free Press

Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Insights from A to Z 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Insights from A to Z 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kriesberg, L. (2003). Constructive Conflict Resolution: From Escalation to Resolution. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield

Kuffor, J. ‘Kuffor blames Africa’s Underdevelopment on Bad Leadership’. APA Africa. www.modernghana.com June 8 2010.

Lederach, J. P. (1997). Building Peace: Sustainable reconciliation in Divided Societies. Washington, D.C: United States Institute of Peace Press.

Lederach, J. P. (1995). Preparing for peace: Conflict transformation across cultures. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Maathai, W. (2009). Challenges for Africa and the problems facing the African Continent. Kenya-Nairobi: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Obadina, T. ‘Africa’s Crisis of Governance Africa Economic Analysis http://www.afbs.com/analysis/crisishtm May 2010

See Cozay Forum ‘Bad Leadership and Corruption in Developing Countries Social and Cultural Issues’.

13

Truman, H. (1884- 1972) ‘Harry Truman’s Quotes’ Accessed from Thinkexist.com June 2010

Warfield, W and Sentongo, A. (2011). Political Leadership and Conflict Resolution: An African Example in African Journal Online. www.ajol.info/index.php/ajcr/article/viewFile/69834/57914

Warren, B. Bennis Leadership Qualities: changingminds.org http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/benis_qualitieshtm July 2010

14