Abstract

Despite the different types of leadership in Nigeria, the essence of leadership in Nigeria among government workers has always been questionable during past decades. Therefore it needs to provide scholarly insights into how we think about leadership. Various research reports have shown that the current rate of good leadership could be higher. Therefore, the study determines the essentials of the Nigerian government's leadership among local government staff in Ibadan, Oyo state. The study adopted a descriptive research design survey in which a total of two hundred local government staff in Ibadan, Oyo state, were selected using a simple random sampling technique. Two research questions and two hypotheses were tested using descriptive and inferential statistics at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that the essence of leadership in the Nigerian government among local government staff in Ibadan, Oyo state is high (X=3.46 > 3.00), the effectiveness of leadership in the Nigerian government is low (X=1.15 < 1.50), and perceived effects of leadership style on followers is low (X=2.85 < 3.00). There is a significant negative relationship between essential leadership and followers’ behaviour; r (198) = -.226 p <0.05 and there was a significant difference between essential leadership and followers’ behaviour based on gender (T(198)= 1.643, p<.05). It was recommended that The Government urgently establish leadership training centers at the 774 local government areas across the country.