Senate President, David Mark, yesterday said that any political figure who emphasises his religious belief as a campaign tool is a failed politician.
Mark made the remark at the 10th Anniversary Public Lecture of the Sun newspaper entitled “Religion, Strife and the Future of Democracy in Africa”.
In his remark, Mark decried the situation where politicians use religion to create confusion and chaos in the country. All religions preach peace and it is only failed politicians that use religion to play politics, said Mark who was also the chairman of the occasion.
“It is only failed politicians that bring religion to the fore of politics, because when you campaign you do not campaign on the platform of any religion. Any politician who comes up and brings faith in politics has missed it; bringing religion to the fore is not the best for our nation,” he stated.
“When people find they can’t make progress anymore they begin to employ their various faiths, and that is wrong. Any politician that emphasises his or her faith … is a failed politician. We will not deny our faith. I am a Catholic, and I will say it anywhere. The bottom line is that Nigeria needs to move forward.”
He added: “A criminal is a criminal; there is no Christian criminal or Muslim criminal. When you get yourself involved in such bad activities and you are caught, you will be treated as a criminal. And the law should be allowed to take its own course. However, today, organised criminals constitute a major problem. And I think some Nigerians today are organised criminals.”
