The ability of a person to effectively and efficiently harness as well as influence the material and human resources of a country is very fundamental to the development of an organisation as a sub-system and all sectors of a country as a whole. In this circumstance it will be appropriate to state unequivocally that leadership (those who occupy public positions) plays a fundamental role in making sure that the lives and welfare of the citizens is improved through the provision of basic infrastructural amenities of life. It is in line with the above assertion that this paper aims at studying the role of leadership in ensuring the development of a country while beaming our search light on a developing economy. The research paper approach adopted for the study conforms to qualitative research, as it reviews the literature relating to organisational behaviour and human resource management. After critical x-ray of related write-ups on the topic under study, we found out that some factors such as corruption, wrong value-system, greed and selfishness, patriotism, ethnicity to name but a few, hinder leaders in developing countries from raising the standard of living of the citizens. Finally the study recommended among other things that Nigeria leaders should be able to see, project and assemble a vision of a desired future for the nation. In addition, they should be selfless, sensitive, moral credent and engaging as these are the fundamental perquisite for mobilising followership, particularly in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural society like Nigeria.
Keywords: Development, Economic development and Developing Economy, Leader, Leadership
