When a country is ranked top in the world for corruption, poverty, insecurity and is labeled a pariah state there is no mistaking such a state is in a deplorable condition.

Factors such as unemployment, poor health services, dwindling economic fortunes, lack of basic infrastructures, and the likes will be the obvious. Nigeria for so many years has been riddled with all this and much more and we are still hoping and praying for a miracle despite our adoption of democracy.

It is so obvious that in spite of the abundance of both human and natural wealth that surrounds us we lack one thing; endowed with so much but "NO LEADER".

Can you imagine that after so many years since the birth and independence of our great country, we still remain as IrReGuLaR as the word itself. I heard someone say that God gave us everything but we fail to give ourselves a true leader. Sadly we totally submit to the doctrine and values of followership yet allow persons not worth mentioning to lead us. Year in year out a lot of Nigerians are being transformed into National Vegetable and their rights utterly detained.

Putting in place a system that will give justice is giving good leadership to the people, thereby creating an environment where most Nigerians are able to go to the court to press charges on abuse or infringement of their fundamental human rights and be sure to get justice.

This country has long been ridiculed by the international community even with the way our rulers boast of the fantastic economic reforms and the jacking up of our GDP from X to Y billion dollars.

I believe most Nigerians will share that opinion with me that we are really sick and tired of looking at our fat record and our reserve. All we need is for the government of the day to look at the reducing state of the stomach of Nigerians; how bad roads and infrastructures are in spite of what we are being shown on national television.

Something has to be done to give hope to these followers and true believers of the Nigerian state.

Far from it if you think it is in the place where the leader should come from, no matter how we look at it, the tribal or ethnic group whose turn it is to produce a leader is not the problem at hand. The issue that should be most paramount in our political motives now is to strive to institutionalize democratic rule via installing persons that possess excellent leadership qualities.

A leader should be first a follower - someone should please tell all those who occupying various political position at state and federal level. It is only at that point will one be able to understand what the needs of the people are irrespective of tribal and ethnic group.

We need one who is transparently impeccable and unimpaired person who has the will and valves to stir the heart of Nigerians, restore the already lost hope and faith of the citizens, serve the country selflessly with all their might and goodness, and generally stimulate the birth of a very much desired political, social and economic newness; such leaders we all yearn for.

It has been over seven months now since the debate of where the next president should come from and who he should be; the south-south says it's the right and also the turn for a power shift to that zone. Though from that part of the country I really wish that we ought to face the fact that current power struggle based on the dispute on where who comes from is insignificant compared to the demeaning situation of the country.

What should be on the minds of those who are aspiring for any political office should be leading the people well and giving them a life of hope. The type of reasoning that should occupy the minds of the new generation of political actors is the selflessness and competence of aspirants to leadership position. Our leaders-to-be should be sound enough to offer workable elucidation to the nation's myriad

social-economic tribulations and be ready and able to rekindle the citizen's seemingly lost hope and faith in the system, whilst also radiating an unquestionable mien and individuality. If Nigerians break their head over this line of reasoning it might be said to be worth the trouble.

Our politicians should just stop making a big fool of us and face that fact of the matter. I feel it is more honourable to say that I will try my best possible than to say that I am that messiah that has been sent to take all your problems away.Few days ago, I heard one of the politicians aspiring for the highest office the political position in the 2007 election saying the he will provide four million jobs in eight months from the day of swearing in to office. He also acclaimed that he will increase the GDP of the country from $40billion to $400 billion. How sad that some politicians still feel that Nigerians are daft and have their sensibility abused. We do not need a magician to be our president; we just need a simple intelligent and right-thinking Nigerian who has the self will to give hope and justice to every Nigerian and non-Nigerians living in Nigeria.

Those who break their head purely on the grounds of tribal and ethnic interest are people with little minds – illiberally minded persons who should be ignored. Hitherto, it would appear that democratic rule is largely frustrated in this country by endless tribal and ethnic wrangling. If only these can be replaces with nationalistic considerations through some magical means, this country would in no distant future emerge as a truly great nation for the sake of peace and stability of this country, those who still preach the divisive sermons of tribalism and ethnicism should no longer be granted any form of audience, not even in our medium of information. Such persons should henceforth be declared as impediments to this country's quest for oneness. So long as we have all agreed or have been made to be a part of this country, an overbearing nationalistic dogma should be our respected axiom.

Our leader should learn to know that this country is for all time and that we are but a short time living and a long time dead. Those that come after us will shower praises on us if we, pioneers of a new nation, lay a solid foundation upon which they can build.

If there is failure in delivery it will also way be said that such a person is a failure. That is why most ofour past political leaders are really trying to come back to resume power so as to restructure and set straight the record that they spent more than four years wrecking.

A lot of the immediate past leaders who did nothing to improve the lifestyle of the people are being haunted by their bad leadership and even posterity will not easily forgive them.

A lot of times I ask why Commissions and agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has not asked simple questions about the tax record of all those who are out there aspiring for that political office. They should seek to find out when last such a candidate paid tax and how much was paid. Maybe we should start from there and by the time the truth has been established on their record we could be assured that if his or her record is straight then we are on our way to welcoming the kind of leader that will lead Nigerians to that land of hope.

Our leaders should be true and real, at least to themselves, facing the truth about the state of the common Nigeria. Our leaders should know that we are not interested in having fat bank accounts but we just need better infrastructure and good roods with an assurance of the future of our children. We do not need a dictator but a leader in the true sense of its meaning. This time around, let us lend a great deal of attention and concern to the welfare of the masses – make life less rigorous and more meaningful through providing necessary basic amenities and generally improving their overall standard of living. That way, the average Nigeria's innate hostile attitude and distrust for anything democratic or even governmental would be dissipated to the extentof feeling a part of forward-looking government – such that would discourage future military interregnums.