JETHRO'S METHODS OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN EXODUS 18:17-23: LESSONS FOR DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA
Despite enjoying official freedom for over 60 years, Africa's expectations and aspirations are still primarily unfulfilled. Leadership has been a recurring theme in the conversation around the African initiative. In order to rebuild a long-lasting atmosphere of peace and tranquility that will encourage growth and affect the leaders and the led in the continent, this paper analyses why the African system of governance has a flawed process for developing leadership and interpersonal relationships. The paper employs an eclectic exegetical approach of both diachronic and synchronic, which allows the exegete to be flexible in data presentation to purposefully achieve the studies and draw lessons for sustainable governance in Africa. The latter aspect of the approach allows the exegesis to accept Exodus 18:17-23 text as the final matured text accepted by the Israelite religious community. The paper reveals that sustainable governance in Africa is possible if the principles shared in this paper are followed. The principles were taken and extracted from Jethro's advice to Moses as recorded in the passage. These include; the principle of electing mature leaders, which must be traced through their track records; the principle of representative leadership, which allows an inclusive system, not nepotism; last but not least, the principle of shared leadership, which gives room for other to participate in the governance not one person becoming a monopoly of knowledge and power.
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