Transformational Leadership, Inclusive Institutions and Service Provision

Photo: News of the South

Leadership, given what is happening now in South Sudan, and generally in Africa, fascinates me. And it fascinates me not in a good way but because of the sociopolitical and socioeconomic ills facing the African continent and most of the so-called 'Third World.' To me, South Sudan, now, is a classic case.

Rebellion by disaffected politico-military leaders and repression by the government of South Sudan in Juba have stunted institutional development and leadership growth. This has made service provision almost irrelevant as political survival has taken primacy and supremacy.

But as the late Nigerian novelist and critic, Chinua Achebe, beautifully writes in The Trouble with Nigeria, there is nothing inherently wrong with the people, the land, and its air. The problems is mainly leadership. This same no-problem with the people has also been highlighted by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in Why Nations Fail. 

Bad leadership in a given social setting and the self-serving institutions that are built by such a leadership usually reflect the problem, wrongly, as being the people themselves. However, without proper leadership, people are usually lost in anomic danger. Before the descent of South Sudan into civil in December of 2013, the country had no direction.

This means that South Sudan and Africa are being failed by the leaders ruling them. These so-called leaders confuse possession of power with leadership. Power is simply having the authority to decide things for people, but leadership involves showing people or countries the direction that can lead to the well-being of the people by spurring their creative impulses and abilities.

Transformational Leadership theory, as James M. Burns explains it to us, helps leaders bring social change that benefits not only the leaders but the general population. Transformational leadership, therefore, leads to positive social change and inclusive institutions as Acemoglu and Robinson put it. In South Sudan, institutions cannot be inclusive if tribes are suspicious of one another as a function of leaders' greed and the game of power. 

But the development of transformational leadership and inclusive institutions is only possible if leaders care about the well-being of the average citizens. Without this moral sentiment among leaders, it becomes nearly impossible for these countries to develop inclusive institutions. Lack of inclusive institutions affects how services and distributed to citizens and what kinds of services are availed. Even if South Sudan has not engaged in any form of service delivery since 2005, it has made sure that a few who benefited, benefited from the reciprocity of transactional leadership based on tribe. 

In Africa, the factors affecting institutional development are numerous. These include lack of vision and the guiding ideology, tribal allegiance, a sense of self that makes leaders focus on enriching themselves without any moral compunction, and the general misunderstanding of what capitalism is and the sense of being far removed from the needs of the average citizens. 

Service provision, therefore, depends on the existence of good institutions; but good (inclusive) institutions cannot come into existence without a good leadership. So in the beginning, especially in new countries like South Sudan, institutional development, leadership, and service provision have a transitive relation:

Good Leadership ---> Responsive & Inclusive Institutions ---> Inclusive Service Provision

A good leadership is one guided by a morally sound ideology with not only the knowledge of what the people need but also, the moral acknowledgment to fulfill such needs. Without this sociopolitical reality, the leadership becomes about power and the people became an afterthought in a selfish exercise of power. South Sudan has perfect that.

In Africa, people are only important to the governing parties if they support leaders' quest for power and not important otherwise. This means that service provision is only availed to people who support leaders' quest for power and the desire to remain there. And the people who mostly support leaders in Africa are mostly one's tribal members or elites [political and ecomomic] in reciprocal transactionalism. This is very true in South Sudan. Admittedly, there is no way a leader can empower people who'd not support their power base.

It's only a moral leadership that thinks beyond the narrow confines of its personal needs, that can build inclusive institutions. South Sudan has a very long way to go to build inclusive institutions not compartmentalized by tribe in order to provide services to everyone regardless of tribe.

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Kuir ë Garang is the editor of 'The Philosophical Refugee' website. He's an author of numerous books. 

Prostitution has taken the highest toll in Juba

By Pal Chol Nyan

Photo: Aljazeera

With war and hunger, everything is possible. We cannot be surprised to see the ills now happening. Poverty is the cause of all evils. It is the cost of prostitution which brings about the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. It is good to bring it to the attention of those who want to live long that it is not only HIV/AIDS that is sexually transmitted. Hepatitis B and C are also transmitted through sex, blood transfusion and sharing of sharp needles just like HIV/AIDS. They have different ways of leading to death. B causes liver cirrhosis and C causes cancer of the liver. 

There are also other sexually transmitted infections like syphilis and gonorrhea besides other viral infections sexually transmitted too. They are many. We need to be careful and stick to our partners. Why do people want to die when they know the cause?  I know we are mortals and will eventually die no matter how long we live on earth but let us help God to safeguard our lives.

Love of money, excessive lust for unprotected sex, promiscuous activities, that is having many sexual partners, are risk factors for the transmission of STIs. Some are treatable but if left untreated, they cause sterility in both males and females especially urethral gonococcus which causes pelvic inflammatory infections usually abbreviated as PID. 

Chlamydia is easy to treat if detected earlier. The statistics now according to the department of HIV / AIDS, the rate of new infections rises as each day passes. 

HIV/AIDS cannot be completely treated but prevented by observing ABC (Abstention, Be faithful and use a Condom). The Antiretroviral drugs do not cure Aids; they strengthen the immunity mainly CD4 loosely translated for a cluster of differentiation. It is a type of a lymphocyte that AIDS attack. 


In Juba, there are many lodges; they are used to practice sex outside marriages instead of them being used by tourists and for commercial purposes now overridden by unlawful sexual malpractices. It is called prostitution if you meet or sleep with more than one person. It is not a term for women or ladies alone. Men, too like practicing unprotected sex and the risk of infections are higher, especially in uncircumcised men. 

It is observed that men with their foreskin not cut are prone to higher risk of infections than the ones circumcised. In the foreskin is a cell called Langerhan's cells which create a conducive atmosphere for the viruses. Once cut, it reduces the risk, scientists observed. 

It is hunger that brings about prostitution and theft. Families have broken up. Women cannot feed the kids alone. They have to use whatever means including going to the lodges to secure a meal for the kids, change their smartphones and go to the saloon. 

Let us protect ourselves from sexually transmitted infections by being faithful or abstain. What is the role of the Municipality in this case? Our social norms and traditions are already under attack.

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The author is a medical practitioner and can be reached @ palcholnyan2016@gmail.com

Editor's Note: The views expressed in this article belong to the author not 'The Philosophical Refugee' website. For the veracity of any information in the article, please contact the author.