ABSTRACT

This paper explores the link between effective leadership and sustainable nation building in Nigerian democratic landscape. Nigeria is a country blessed with abundant human and natural resources yet battles with the challenges of building and sustaining a viable nation. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the impact of valued based leadership for nation building in Nigeria. The paper adopts qualitative research design as data were collected through secondary sources. Content analysis is applied to analyze the data collected, predicated on the transformational leadership theory. The paper reveals that Nigeria lacks visionary leadership which is the panacea for sustainable nation building. It demonstrates the fact that the absence of selfless leaders that would put the nation above personal and sectional/ethno religious interest is reason the country is still facing development and governance crises. Further analysis shows that endemic corruption, lack of ideology, policy reversal and faulty leadership selection process among others are responsible for the country inability to maintain its building process. The paper concludes that Nigeria needs a committed political leadership with courage and political will to tackle the nation’s development challenges. It recommends that leadership recruitment process should be reformed and straightened towards producing nationalist and patriotic leaders devoid of ethnic or religious attachments