Senator Mark: 'It's not over yet'

TheNEWS

June 3, 2015

Enjoying this story? Read the full magazine — archive back to 1993.

•Mark: says it's not over yet — •Mark: says it’s not over yet

Nigeria’s longest serving Senate President, David Mark, left his audience wondering about his plans in the 8th Session of the National Assembly when he dropped a cryptic message at a thanksgiving service in his honour by Christian Legislators Fellowship International, National Assembly.

In thanking God for his grace in helping him navigate through his military career and also the eighth-year leadership of the National Assembly, Mark said:

“People of God, I cherish your prayers so much; it is not yet over until it is over by God. So continue to pray for me.’’

Although Mark will be representing his Benue State constituency in the new Senate, his party is short of the majority that would have ensured his return to the highest legislative office. Mark’s Peoples Democratic Party won 49 seats to the new ruling party’s All Progressives Congress 59 seats. An indication that Mark could retain his seat by accident is the lack of consensus within the APC on his successor. A meeting is scheduled for today in Abuja to resolve the issue.

Mark had earlier told the congregation that he joined politics in order to serve God and humanity.

He added that through the prayers of the people, God saw him through the years and ascribed his achievements from the military era to the present dispensation to God’s grace.

He recalled that the Senate had five presidents between 1999 and 2007 but he remained president for a period of eight years, from 2007 to 2015.

He said “I joined politics to serve not only humanity but to serve God; I chose to be a team player in order to carry the senators along and I call each of the senators my boss.

In his remark, the Deputy Chaplain to the President of the Senate, Rev. Vincent Asuquo, described Mark as a focused man who relied on God for guidance.

Asuquo said “Mark was a very focused officer when he was in the military. By the time he became Major, those who appointed him as Chairman of Abandoned Property saw that quality in him as young as he was.

“His comportment, spirit of statesmanship, team spirit, a very humble personality are the attributes God anoints a personality with as leader and Mark has them all.

“He is a bridge builder and not given to arrogance, neither does he claim to know it all. When a personality has such attributes, the sky is the limit of his ascendancy in his career.’’

He advised whoever emerged the Senate President in the 8th Assembly to examine himself or herself and be prepared to learn from the mistakes and the successes of the past assembly.

Also, Pastor Pertru Okebugwu, Senior Pastor, Ark International Christian Centre, Gwarinpa, Abuja, who led the prayer of intercession during the service, described Mark as a man that feared God.

“It only takes a man that has access to the spirit of wisdom to be able to do in eight years, what five persons had to do. It takes an uncommon display of God’s wisdom and grace to achieve that.

“What I will advise is for the 8th National Assembly to apply the same principle Mark displayed to achieve so much feat as President of the Senate.

“He knows how to rally people together and that is a great attribute that must be emulated.’’

In his comments, the Chairman of the fellowship, Sen. Ita Enang (APC- Akwa Ibom North-East), urged members of the fellowship to continue to pray for the leadership of the 8th National Assembly.

Enang said that though the 7th Assembly was bowing out, the fellowship should not relent in its meetings and prayers.

He, thereafter, announced Sen. Barnabas Gemade (APC-Benue North-East) as the new Chairman of the fellowship.

Enang took over as chairman after the death of Sen. Uche Chukwumerije.

At the thanksgiving, Enang, who did not win re-election, handed the mantle of leadership to Gemade as he would not be part of the 8th Assembly.

One response to “Senator Mark: 'It's not over yet'”

New Nigerian
June 3, 2015

So David Mark is a Christ-like and lover of God. (I am not going to accuse him of wanting to play Jonathan). So we take him at his confessed faith. As a man of faith therefore, how come he oversaw the rape of the treasury to increase the total compensation of himself and his colleagues from N10billion per year to N150billion per year? Where was this faith when they fail in their oversight function of reigning in an executive-arm of government gone rogue, turning the national treasury into personal piggy bank and overseeing the mass theft of our common wealth – cash in 100s of billions of dollars, resources (including but not limited to 400,000 barrels per day); sitting idle as 37,000+ of his fellow northerners were killed by a ragtag militia, doing nothing to reign in a corrupt military and rather giving them more billions for doing nothing; where is the christ-like feelings for the poor when the senate under Mark’s leadership was behaving like emperors and slave owners with their fellow Plutocratic Desperado Party (PDP) – this pseudonym continues to be used until the new administration completely unwinds the systemic corruption that have been implanted by them – with impunity in the land where 90% of the population lives on less than $2 per day & 70% lives on less than $1 per day; where was God in the calculations of robbing the have-nots to subsidize the rich through a subsidy scam to the tune of $192billion in the last 6 years alone?; and the list goes on, …Now we have voted massively for the government of the people by the people for the people and he asks for prayers from the same people with the above sins against the masses by saying “People of God, I cherish your prayers so much; it is not yet over until it is over by God. So continue to pray for me.’’ If he wants sincere prayers, he is better off asking God for forgiveness of not living to the standards of the oath he took, as well as, getting a group of the have-nots together that they have collective pauperized and oppressed, and ask for their government, even as he dedicate himself to right the wrongs that have been brought with impunity against them through his leadership – and this including but not limited to dedicating himself to oversight functions as an esteemed senator (it is a rare privilege to be a elected to the senate) in the opposition party no less to ensure all stolen commonwealth are returned to the treasury of the federal republic where they should see that it is judiciously put to work for the Nigerian people.