Philosopher-Kings in Post-independent Africa: Myth or Reality!

摘要

Previous studies on the subject of leadership crisis among post independent African states, identified the likes of:udIgwe,Ugowe,Lwanda, Birmingham, Olisa, Mwakikagile, and Sanders as some of the contemporary scholars whoudpromoted arguments supporting the claims that Banda, Nkrumah and Azikiwe - all first Presidents of their variousudnations - should necessarily be ascribed the title of ‘Philosopher-king’, on account of their past achievements andudcontributions to their nation. However, a critical examination of the dispositions of the African leaders in question,udidentified some contradictions inherent in the above claims, especially when considered from the criteria stipulatedudfor ‘Philosopher-kings’ by Plato in The Republic. While adopting conceptual and contextual analytical methods forudsynthesizing and analysing relevant literature, texts and archival materials on the subject of African Philosophy;udAfrican leadership styles; and leadership crisis generally, this study focused on analysing critically, the claims whichudascribed ‘Philosopher-king’ titles to these post independent African leaders, with the view to affirming or negatingudthe proposed claims by these contemporary scholars. The study observed that the earlier claims made about the postindependentudAfrican leaders under review, were largely erroneous, baseless, misleading, and unfounded. It is moreudof a myth than reality