Abstract

AGBIJI, Obaji M.  and  SWART, Ignatius. Christian religious leadership and the challenge of sustainable transformational development in post-military Nigeria: Towards a reappraisal. Koers (Online) [online]. 2015, vol.80, n.1, pp.1-13. ISSN 2304-8557.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koers.v80i1.2212.

This article seeks to make an initial contribution towards a reappraisal of how the Christian religious leadership in Nigeria is beginning to chart a new course in social transformation that has the potential to engender sustainable transformational development in the country. This aim is met by first providing the necessary contextual orientation of how the two broad areas of political governance and economic development present themselves as prevailing major social challenges in present-day post-military Nigeria. This is followed by a discussion of the role of leadership as a primary causal and redeeming factor in meeting the challenge of sustainable transformational development both in Nigeria and African society at large. The authors proceed then towards the main focus of the article, namely to move - on the basis of a literature and empirical exploration -towards a reappraisal of how the Christian religious leadership in present-day Nigeria is beginning to exert itself as an emerging movement for sustainable transformational development through particular institutional arrangements and modes of social engagement. This reappraisal leads the authors to end with a synthesising reflection on what they consider to be not only the most outstanding contribution to date by the Christian religious leadership in present-day Nigeria in advancing a sustainable transformational development agenda, but also the crucial challenges that this leadership still faces in meeting such an agenda.

Keywords : Christian religious leadership; post-military Nigeria; sustainable transformational development; leadership; African societies; political governance; economic development; Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

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