The Kleptomaniac Leadership and his Destructive Role on the Economic Dimension of Nation Building An Illustration of the Manipulative and Destructive Self-Appointed Dictator and his Cohorts in Eritrea Paper Presented at the 16th International Academy of African Business and Development (IAABD) Conference from May 13-16, 2015 at Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya By Desalegn Abraha, Ph. D Associate Professor in Business Administration Email:
[email protected] Abstract: This article examines the Economic Dimension of Nation building in light of the economic vision adopted in 1994. Both secondary and primary data are used to write this article. The primary data is collected through telephone interviews, personal interviews and focus-group discussions with some veteran liberation fighters, former government officials, business men and some people who were holding key positions in some government institutions and who have experience and knowledge as to how the market operates. The main findings show that the kleptomaniac leadership has committed an economic, legal and ethical blunder scoring one of its main failures in the economic dimension of the nation building process. This is due to the fact that it has applied a militarist and one man owned, designed, decided and miss managed command economy model although it claims that it is applying a market economy model as stipulated in the economic vision. Moreover, it is to be indicated that the dysfunctional militarist and one man owned, designed, decided and miss managed command economy model is not properly planned and it is poorly coordinated and terribly mismanaged. This reality has a serious negative consequence on the economic, social, cultural, diplomatic and political conditions of the country.