Role of Civil Society in Leadership Recruitment and Renewal

Abstract

The preceding chapters focus on the challenge facing Nigeria in working out a satisfactory formula for selecting and ensuring orderly succession of government leaders. The enduring nature of the challenge leads to one inescapable conclusion—that is, that the question of who leads is too important to be left to those holding or contesting leadership positions. Specifically, meeting the challenge of leadership selection and renewal requires the intervention of civil society at large. It is fair to ask what civil society has to do with leadership selection, more so, when other institutions (for instance, political parties, party primaries, and conventions, and, for better or worse, party elders) exist to perform this essential function.