NIGERIANS certainly need to state how they should be governed.

The system we operate is based on political parties. We are no longer under an imposed system where certain individuals seized the apparatus of state in a coup d'état to rule the country for their own personal gains and appropriation.

What sensible persons expect are policies and programmes from the ruling political party in all aspects of the economy.

The political party is the platform to evolve policies and programmes for any action the government is to take.

The basis for election into government is to carry out the policy and programmes of the party, those it popularised at the time of electioneering campaign to be elected into government.

Indeed, this country, Nigeria, is not being governed. And that is the truth. We must tell ourselves the truth; if not, we are all doomed.

The ruling parties do not have any policy in any area of governance. It is not entirely the fault of the politicians and those in government.

The people did not vote for policies and programmes. They voted for an Ijaw man, a non-Northerner, a man from the village of Jonathan!

And they celebrated that! Obasanjo celebrated it! Mrs. Jonathan celebrated it!

This very basic issue is worth debating and we must learn to bring into government those people and political parties that have policies and programmes for the development and the good of the people of this country.

I recall when the result of the last presidential election was published and to my shock and great surprise, Goodluck Jonathan had 2.5 million votes from the South West zone of the country.

I immediately called a niece who is an active member of the Action Congress of Nigeria on telephone to find out why the candidate of the ACN scored that very low in the zone and the candidate of the PDP scored that high.

She told me straight away that the people did not want a northerner as president! I was shocked that the people of a political party in my country, Nigeria, in the year 2011 would not vote for their own presidential candidate Nuhu Ribadu because he was a northerner.

I recall that Nuhu Ribadu did well only in the State of Osun in the South West zone. That certainly was due to the political sincerity of Rauf Aregbesola and the other leaders of the ACN in that state.

We have to discuss this issue and be very honest about it. I recall that Tinubu, the uncrowned leader of the ACN, indeed met with Jonathan some two days before the date of election!

Why are they in rival political parties if they could not fight an election openly and let the winner be a true winner?

The issue is that elections are fought in Nigeria for personal gains and not for the purpose of getting a purposeful government.

People do not care who gets there so long he is from a particular ethnic nation, or is a member of a particular religion.

No one discusses politics on the basis of policies and programmes but on mundane basis of self, place of origin and religion.

These three are purely personal matters that do not impact on the quality of governance.

Governments are formed in virtually all parts of the world on the basis of policies and programmes.

Yes, place of origin may be considered by some, but the vast majority of people choose their governments on the basis of policies and programmes.

We need to state here that the foundation of today's politics in Nigeria was laid in 1950 with the formation of the Action Group and the Northern Peoples' Congress.

These two were parochial parties that did very well for their peoples, the Yoruba and the Northerners in whose interests the parties were created in the first place.

The principle of where a politician comes from is never valid and will never be valid for the development of Nigeria as a country.

We should put all that behind us if this country is to develop.

The political parties should go and work out clear policies and programmes on how to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.

I must state that the Democratic Alternative has a clear policy and programme on the eradication of corruption in Nigeria.

The party however did not have the clout or the power to promote itself in the country. It is probably irrelevant now to propagate the policy and programme of the DA.

To do that is merely to expand the volume of talks going on in the country, and indeed in the world without the ability or the power to do something to counter the evil of corruption.

I will propose that the ruling political parties at the federal, state and local levels should sit down, formulate sound and germane policies and programmes on how to stop corruption in this battered country, Nigeria.

That is the beginning of finding an answer to the problem. Of course, the voters should vote for the party with the superior policy and programme next time around.

That is the beginning of putting a stop to these ungodly acts that continue to ruin our country.