The main objective of the study is to identify the problems militating against the effective leadership and management of higher institutions of learning. In order to achieve the above mentioned objective, two hypotheses were drawn, first, “ appointment of unqualified leaders in institutions of higher learning has retarded the performance of subordinates,” second, “inappropriate application of leadership style has affected organizational standards.” The results of the investigation proved the hypotheses right. For example, in the polytechnic, especially the academic staff, where some of them possess higher qualifications than the Rector do not give much respect to him, and as a result of this he hardly checks their excesses, this leads to them not discharging their responsibilities, and this is a threat to effective leadership and management of human resources. Some of the staff, because they use the polytechnic as a stepping stone, after acquiring their additional qualifications, they left for other sister tertiary institutions for better challenges. It was also found out that the application of inappropriate leadership style exists in the polytechnic and this affects the standards of the polytechnic negatively because the staff are not always involvedindecisionmakingprocess,thisdoesnotboosttheirmorale.The staff could be motivated if a participative leadership style is put in place where each and every staff could contribute his quota and feel a sense of belonging. It is as a result of the above problems that made this study to suggest that the chief executive of the polytechnic should strive for higher qualifications, and not only that, since this is a polytechnic, the chief executive should be technologically biased. Also in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the polytechnic, the subsequent appointment of any rector to the polytechnic should be within the polytechnic or any other person outside the polytechnic who is versatile in science andtechnology