Abstract

In the wealth of literature on state failure, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the question of what constitutes state success and what enables a state to succeed. This Study examines the effects of good leadership and Administration in Nation Building, to build or rebuild public institutions before they reach the point of failure: to make the state work.

In Cameroon, the public sector has become an epitome of all that is corrupt, fraudulent and self-egoistic. Self-egoistic is preferred to national interest and leadership crisis prevalent at all levels of decision-making has further deepened the imbroglio.

The Study adopts personal interview technique method leading to the generation of primary data and further adopts desk research method; mainly from secondary source and also adopts analytical research in arriving at findings. A mini interaction with few randomly selected academicians, civil organization, politicians, market men and women were sought to elicit information on leadership and national development of Limbe Council 1 and Cameroon in general.

The findings revealed that Limbe Council 1 has lost traction in its attempt to achieve nation’s development because of politics, ethnicity, socio-economic inequalities, building institutions for democracy and development, appropriate constitutional settlement and corrupted process of recruitment of leaders, among other factors. It is against this backdrop that the paper examines leaderships and nation building, Nations are built by men and women who have the will and vision to accomplish greatness, not for themselves only, their immediate families and friends, but for their country.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background to the study

There has been an enormous shift in attitudes toward leadership, both at academic and organizational levels. It is now widely recognized that top-down autocratic leadership has for less relevance to today’s organization, which face rapid change and have to fight to survive in an extremely competitive and increasingly global market place.  The interplayof leadership, governance, nation building and development administration is elaborate and inseparable. This is due to the fact that the context of leadership, both in theory and in practical, the effects of governance shows on national growth procedures.

Warren Bennis, a prominent authority on leadership, once mentioned that “leadership is like beauty: it is difficult to specific, however you understand it when you see it”. That might not be further from the reality. The study is concerned with the relationship between development administrations on the one hand and administrative development on the other. It tries to discover the ideas of public administration and management in the national growth context, leadership function, leadership culture in Cameroon context and difficulties of leadership in modern Cameroon by a close evaluation of the institution of political leadership.

In accordance with Abdulsalam (2007:28-34),the interest of Riggs and Pye in the connection between nationwide development administration and the environmental forces, particularly those that represented by the economic sector strake-holders and the social values respectively, Katz accentuate the technical demands for efficient development administration, such as finance, manpower, information, logistics and various other relevant variables.

Obiozor (2015:1-25) opines that Africa is a country birthed in optimism in 1960 at independence however has over 50 years lived in a state of uncertainty and unpredictability, within those years as well, all type of evaluation and conclusions have been put together on crucial problems responsible for what has ended up being a Cameroonian dilemma over nation building and national development.

This is due to fact that nations compared with Nigeria in 1960 have made huge progress, developed reasonably stable political and economic system. When compared with third world nations in the 1960s, such as nations in Asia like Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, in an interval of thirty years, the latter ended up being the Asian tigers.

He explained more that while the former are immersed in seasonal violent wars, armed conflict and little scale insurgencies, cross-border terrorism, unrelenting economic situations, financial corruption, famine, diseases and hardship, political instability, among others, which have come to be emblems of the Africa continent. What made the distinction? In the light of the dilemma, this study tries to look at how leadership and good governance have connected and the effects of their connections on nation building within the Cameroon context.

There is no doubt that there are crisis in the nation, they consist of all the crisis of political, social and economic development identified by Olugbade( 1987:239-241) in Lucan Pye. Efforts at dealing with the dilemma have been utter failure since the problems have not been dealt with instead we have been busy chasing after the shadow. Among Africa fault lines was for long time attributed to leadership failures and others were defective political and economic structures. Ele (2013:32-42) opines that there is often presumed the collapse of state structures, whether through defeat by an external power or as a result of internal harm, leads to vacuum of political power. This is seldom the situation. The mechanisms whereby political power are exercised might be much formalized or constant, however fundamental concerns of how best to guarantee the physical and economic security of oneself and one’s dependants do not just vanish when the institutions of the state break down.

Non-state actors in such circumstances might exercise differing levels of political power over local populations, sometimes offering fundamental social solutions from education to healthcare. Also non-state actors exist as parasites on local populations, political life goes on.

Unfortunately, in Cameroon today, a lot of the leaders had the tendency to plunder, defraud, embezzle, mismanage and at the same time envy one another with impunity and relish. Political leaders have likewise been possessive, egoistic, self-centered, individualistic, callous, greedy and deceptive.

The leaders and their regimes/administrations/governments were deeply engrossed in excessive acts of corruption, impropriety, mismanagement and squanderism. Hence this study seeks to examine the effect of good leadership and administration in nation building.

1.2 Statement of the problem 

Since the achievement of independence in 1960, Cameroon has been battling with the issues of nation building. These issues have been the inability of Cameroonians to raise genuine leaders whose dedication to the efficient advancement of nation would certainly be patriotic and nationalistic.

The succeeding governments since independence have been characterized by imperfections, consequently making good governance an illusion. Throughout the regimes, the majority of the leadership have been unable to come up with programs and efficient plans that ought to be advantageous to the Cameroonian nation. The majority of these leaders has been after selfish gains and thus accumulates riches for themselves.

It is axiomatic that the high quality of leadership in a nation impacts the degree of development. Poor leadership and bad governance can yield to political instability and underdevelopment. Cameroon is honored with a wealth of minerals resources and vast land.

Cameroon (Limbe Council1) wallows in socio-economic, political and infrastructural decadence and sluggishness. To this end, it comes to be a point of concern for one to start to picture how Cameroon will ever rise from decadence and her impoverished state being that those that are meant to steer the wheels of the nation to the country emancipation and prosperity, lack the sanity and morality to do so.

1.3Research Question

1.3.1 General Research Question

This study is designed to explore what are the effects of good leadership and administration in nation-building in Limbe Council 1?

1.3.2 Specific Research Question

1. What are the positive impacts of leadership and governance on nation-building?
2. What is the importance of leadership in nations building?
3. What are the challenges facing leadership and nation-building in Limbe Council 1?

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