Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Sen. Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP-Taraba South) says incompetent politicians are the major factors responsible for ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria.
Bwacha, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, said that 80 per cent of politicians used it to get elected into political positions.
He urged electorates, particularly the people of Taraba to vote people on the basis of who they are in order to prevent wicked politicians or leaders from using religion to score cheap political goals.
“I want to say clearly that this situation is not peculiar to Taraba state, it is a national problem.
“It is a national problem that is fuelled by bad leadership because when people have a lot of inadequacies and they are suffering from complex, they often resort to either religion or ethnocentrism and geo-politics.
“And this will continue to play because a lot of people come to contest election not because they have the capacity but because they want to capitalise on tribe or religion as a tool to advance their political interest.
“80 per cent of most of our politicians depend on this because most of them don’t have the capacity, they are hanging on to primordial sentiments and we will continue to suffer this problem.
He admonished citizens on electing leaders that would put smiles on their faces because poverty does not know tribe, religion or geopolitics.
The lawmaker also warned incompetent politicians to stop promoting religious politics because “God cherishes just and fair leaders not religious bigot.
“There are unserious Muslims and unserious Christians and in the category of these unserious ones, they actually constitute the trouble makers.
“If a leadership is bad, it is bad. There is no barrier, you either take it or live it,” he said.
The deputy minority leader, however, advised electorates to learn how to assess people’s capacities to deliver.
“People who serve God are holy people, sin should not be seen in them but you will see an adulterer and a highly corrupt person talking about religion.
“Both Muslims and Christians meet to steal the common wealth and later they will be talking about religion.
“Most of them are criminals and this is the problem we have in this country. Until people understand this, the nation cannot move forward.
“God is not a god of religious politics. You see Christians and Muslims coming together to steal money from the treasury and they go the village and preach hatred and deepen division.
“We have bunch of criminals all over the land destroying the country and many people have died because of misinformation by these selfish politicians.
“That is the unfortunate situation we found ourselves and it will take a great deal before it ends,” he said.
He advised the people of Taraba to eschew violence and avoid primordial sentiments and religious politics ahead of the 2019 general elections.
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