Leadership Ethics: An African Virtue Ethics Approach to Leadership Ethics

The purpose of this paper is to explore an African philosophical-normative approach to leadership ethics. This paper examines a not-very-well-known space in the field of normative ethics - Ibibio virtue ethics. In examining the relationship between ethics and leadership, much of the literature centres on an empirical – descriptive Western – based perspective of ethical leadership in organizations. Hence, the ideas about ethics are often not fully developed or discussed. To achieve the purpose of this paper, we employ African ethics as a paradigm for ethical leadership. This paper discusses the Ibibio virtue ethics, qualities of a good leader, and ethical principles for leaders. It also examines some cases of moral leadership failure in Nigeria, illustrating applicability of Ibibio virtue ethics and principles to leadership. It concludes that good leadership denotes not only the leader’s competence and capacity, but also his or her moral character. Once ethics is taken away from leadership, we cease to have leadership. What we have without ethics in leadership are treasury looters, nepotistic and greedy individuals. Leaders without moral character use their position and privilege to embezzle public funds, instigate ethnic and religious crises to their advantage, encourage and also institute systemic corruption.

Keywords: African Virtue Ethics, Leadership Ethics, Moral Character, Ibibio Virtue Ethics, Ethical Leader, Ibibio Ethical Principle