PLATO’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND THE QUESTION OF LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper examines Plato’s political philosophy and the question of leadership in Nigeria. In recent times, the growing trend among scholars of leadership and sustainable development is to associate the recurring incidence of policy failure, leadership crisis and a deteriorating political economy at the door-step of an ineffective leadership structure and the absence of an educated elite class. The paper agrees that the above were encumbering political development in Nigeria. Plato, in “The Republic” argues that Kings should become philosophers and that philosophers should become kings or philosopher kings, as they possess a special level of knowledge, which is required to rule the Republic successfully. This paper identified in Plato, a structure and a theory capable of offering the qualitative education lacking among the leadership class. Using an expository method, the paper therefore concludes that Plato’s theory of the philosopher king be adopted for it has the capacity to fill the leadership gap in Nigeria.