The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has begged Nigerians to use religion to preach unity and great values among citizens.
He revealed this when he hosted members of the African Biblical Leadership Initiative (ABLI) led by Prof Jerry Gana, who paid him a courtesy call ahead of their international conference to be held in Nigeria in October.
Femi believes that if religion is channeled the right way, our country can be a better society.
He added that since it is impossible for the National Assembly to make laws on good moral values, the religious and traditional leaders, parents have to do all they can to promote it wherever they are.
His words, “Nigeria is a secular country, we all know that. This will bring the value of religion to governance. Citing an example of Senegal, a country with a population of about 90 per cent Muslims and 10 per cent Christians, Gbajabiamila said one could not see any religious differences among the citizens of that country, noting that the first elected president of Senegal was a non-Muslim.
“So, it’s when we marry both religions together that we achieve what we want,”
“If you combine all the values we've if both religions can come together to teach these values, we will achieve a utopian society.”
“I tell people that there are things you can’t legislate. You can come to the National Assembly a hundred times, however, you can’t legislate values, because they’re inbuilt. For instance, you can’t legislate integrity.
“We've in the House a very strong Christian society. The Deputy Leader (Rep. Peter Akpatason) is a member of the society, and I’m sure he’ll carry the message to them.
“We will participate fully in the conference. For us, anything that will add value to our society, we won’t shy away from it.”