Leadership in Corruption and Corrupt Leadership: Revisiting Who's Afraid of Solarin by Femi Osofisan

Africa is one of the continents in the world that have leadership
challenges from colonial masters to military dictators, although
presently, democracy is being embraced by almost all African
states. Interestingly, lots of aspersions have been cast by scholars
attributing Africa's under-development and slow growth rate to
'corrupt leadership' which has perpetually kept the continent in
economic chaos resulting in abject poverty of the region. In this
paper, attention will be on leaders and leadership in corruption in а
democratic era, especially in Nigeria. The point here is to revisit the
play text, Who's Afraid of Solarin? by Femi Osofisan as a platform
to open up discussions on corrupt leadership in Nigeria under
democracy. This is with the intention of exploring the wave and
spread, depth and extent of corruption among democratically
elected leaders and the effect on the governed. These would be
achieved by drawing copious instances of corrupt practices by
leaders from the Nigerian society in relation to the play text to
juxtapose past and present situations. Questions that yearm for
answers will be posed as to what actually inhibits good leadership
in Nigeria and why has it become a norm for leaders to be corrupt?
The paper will further identify avenues for curbing this
cankerworm, at least to the barest minimum, if not total
eradication, for a rebirth of new leaders.