Abstract
This article looks at the social fundamentals in Africa’s political governance in relation to basic leadership and its system of administration regarding public office holders vis-a-vis political leaders. In an attempt to address the research question, it conceptualizes the dynamics of having a transparent government, in the changing pattern in leadership in relation to good administration of governance and the management of public goods and delivery of services to general public, a system for which the discourse changes in Africa’s legislative issues. This article focuses on the structures of interaction from the national to local level it then brings up development of events that seem to be basic to all African politics, which may have been inciting the changes in the original patterns. It identifies socio-political and economic policies as bedrock that is central to a country’s stability and development. Inevitably, a properly established economic policy is needed to ensure the sustainability, strength, development, and delivery, of public goods efficiently. This article contributes to the political discourse in Africa, which may have continued to this day and findings shows the obvious failures on the part of political leaders’ and their inability to manage public resources, thereby making them deviate from their campaign manifestos or become detached from people-centred fundamental issues of governance. Qualitatively, this article is conducted and guided by Stewardship and Corporate Governance theory. It objectively looks at the keys of good governance as its objective in the post-independence African public sector in providing an enabling environment and effective regulatory framework.
Keywords
- Political Processes Search this journal for Political Processes (opens in a new tab)
- Governance Search this journal for Governance (opens in a new tab)
- Interaction Search this journal for Interaction (opens in a new tab)
- Accountability Search this journal for Accountability (opens in a new tab)
- Economic Performance Search this journal for Economic Performance (opens in a new tab)
References
- Akonor, K. (2013). Foreign aid to Africa: A hollow hope? International Law and Politics, 40, 1071–1078.
- Amuwo, K. (2005). The Peripheral State: Critical perspectives on the structure and role of the public bureaucracy. Journal of Development Alternatives, 24(3-4), 119-130.
- Annan, K. (2004). The causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa. African Renaissance, 1, 9-43.
- Arusha. (1990). African Charter for Popular Participation in Development Transformation. International Conference on Popular Participation in the Recovery and Development Process in Africa, 12–16.
- Ayittey, G. B. N. (2004). Why Africa is Poor: And what Africans can do about it. Johannesburg: Penguin Books.
- Bondigas, A. (2019). Stewardship Theory of Corporate Governance.
- Badun, M. (2004). Governance and public administration in the context of Croatian accession to the European Union. In: Ott K (ed) Croatian accession to the European Union: institutional challenges. Institute of Public Finance and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb
- Blair, D. (2005). #220bn Stolen by Nigeria’s Corrupt Rulers. The Telegraph.
- Booth, D. (2012). Development as a collective action problem: addressing the real challenge of African governance. Synthesis report of the Africa Power and Politics Programme. Overseas Development Institute: London.
- Booth, D. & Cammack, D. (2013). Governance for Development in Africa: Solving Collective Action Problems. Zed Books: London.
- Brinkerhoff, D. W. & Brinkerhoff, J. M. (2015). Public Sector Management Reform in Developing countries: Perspectives Beyond NPM Orthodoxy. Public administration and development, 35, 222–237.
- Carothers, T. & Saskia, B. (2014). Transparency, Participation, and Inclusion: A New Development Consensus?
- Castells, M. & Himanen, P. (2014). Reconceptualizing Development in the Global Information Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Chabal, P. & Daloz, J. P. (1999). Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument, James Currey, Oxford.
- Chigudu, D. (2018). Corporate governance in Africa’s public sector for sustainable development: The task ahead, The Journal for Trans disciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 14(1), a512.
- Dey, I. (2005). Qualitative data analysis. London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
- Enaifoghe, A. O. & Maramura, T. C. (2018). The Quest for Economic Development and the Impacts of Good Governance in Africa Developing Countries. Journal of ACTA Universitatis Danubius (AUDA), 10(1), 17-38.
- Government-Linked Companies Research Centre (GLCRC). (2011). Corporate Governance TheoriesStewardship theory.
- Government-Linked Companies Research Centre (GLCRC). (2012a). Corporate Governance and Human Governance: Ethics.
- Grindle, M. S. (2007). Good enough governance revisited. Development Policy Review, 25(5), 533–574.
- Gulrajani, N. (2015). Dilemmas in donor design: organization reform and the future of foreign aid agencies. Public Administration and Development, 35(2), 152–164.
- Hasan, S. (2019). Governance and Public Administration. In: Farazmand A. (Eds) Global Encyclopaedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham
- Healey, P. (2004). Creativity and Urban Governance, Policy Studies, 25, 87-102.
- Holomisa, B. (2017). Socio-political impact on Governance, Risk and Compliance Address by Mr. B Holomisa, MP (UDM President) at the IT Web Governance, Risk and Compliance 2017. United Democratic Movement (UDM).
- International Monetary Fund. (2016). The IMF and good governance. Washington, D.C.: Communications Department.
- Kelsall, T. (2016). Thinking and working with political settlements (London: ODI).
- Makinde, T. (2013). Global Corruption and Governance in Nigeria. Journal of Sustainable Development, 6, 8.
- McKinsey Global Institute. (2016). Lions on the move II: Realizing the potential of Africa’s economies (New York: McKinsey & Company).
- Mogalakwe, M. (2006). Research Report. The Use of Documentary Research Methods in Social Research. African Sociological Review, 10(1), 221-230.
- Obeng-Odoom, F. (2015). Africa: On the rise, but to where? Forum for Social Economics, 44, 234–50.
- Olukoshi, A. (2018). Changing Patterns of Politics in Africa.
- Omotoso, F. (2008). Corruption, Democracy, and Development in Nigeria. Ife Social Sciences Review, 1(23), 105-117.
- Roe, E. (1993). Against power: For the politics of complexity, Transitions, 62, 90-104.
- Stoker, G. (1998). Governance as theory: five propositions. Int Soc Sci J, 50(155), 17–28.
- Udo, E. S. (2004). Defining good governance–The conceptual competition is on. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum.
- UN-Habitat. (2016). World Cities Report 2016. Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures (Nairobi: UN-Habitat).
- United Nations Development Programme. (2002). Human development report 2002: Deepening democracy in a fragmented world. New York: UNDP.
- USAID (US Agency for International Development). (2014). Local Systems: A Framework for Supporting Sustained Development. USAID, Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning: Washington, DC.
- Walter, J. (2019). Stewardship Theory of Corporate Governance. MANAGEMENT, Biz fluent
- Watts, M. (2007). Crisis in Nigeria. Retrieved April 22, 2019. www.counterpunch.org.
- World Bank. (1991). Managing Development: The Governance Dimension. Discussion paper.
- World Bank. (1993). Governance. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
- World Bank. (2012). The World Bank’s approach to public sector management 2011–2020: better results from public sector institutions. Washington, DC: World Bank, Public Sector and Governance Board.
Downloads
No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.
How to Cite
Share this article
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Andrew Osehi Enaifoghe, Tafadzwa C. Maramura, Israel K. Ekanade, Hannah Muzee (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
Keywords
- Political Processes Search this journal for Political Processes (opens in a new tab)
- Governance Search this journal for Governance (opens in a new tab)
- Interaction Search this journal for Interaction (opens in a new tab)
- Accountability Search this journal for Accountability (opens in a new tab)
- Economic Performance Search this journal for Economic Performance (opens in a new tab)
Section
Published
Submissions
Have research to publish? Journal of Social and Development Sciences welcomes submissions.
Make a Submission