Former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Saturday said most Nigerian leaders venture into politics without adequate preparation.


Osinbajo said due to the lack of preparation of leaders, politics has acquired a bad name in Nigeria.

He spoke at the 2nd Annual Daniel Taiwo Odukoya Memorial Lecture, held at The Fountain of Life Church in Lagos.


Osinbajo, however, noted that despite the disillusion, politics remained the pathway to leadership and influence.

He urged Nigerian youths to actively engage in politics as a vital tool for shaping the country’s leadership and bring about a lasting transformation.

“Politics has acquired a bad name, not just in Nigeria, but across the world. But the truth is, there is no other way to influence a nation except by engaging in the political process.


“If we are not involved in choosing leaders, shaping policy, or participating in political parties, then we forfeit our right to complain when outcomes don’t reflect our values.

“Many people go into politics with nothing, no plan, no knowledge, and end up achieving nothing. Leadership demands more.

“Nigeria’s transformation requires principled, informed, and active participation in the political space.


“This nation is not beyond redemption. But change will only come when citizens, especially those with moral conviction and vision, step forward to lead,” the ex-VP said.

Senate Spokesman Yemi Adaramodu on Friday said Nigeria’s democracy would be jeopardised if lawmakers in the two legislative arms transit from full-time to part-time.

“If the parliament is on part-time, then it means democracy is on part-time,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme. “There is no democracy that derides its parliament and thrives.”

He argued that the parliament is the bastion and fulcrum of democracy and no level of cost-cutting should affect the allocations that go to lawmakers.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker representing Ekiti South Senatorial District said beyond law-making and oversight functions on the executive, the 109 Senators in the Senate and the 360 members of the House of Representatives shoulder the responsibilities of their constituents.

He said, “The Nigerian parliament is not only for lawmaking; we do oversight function. We advocate for our constituents.

“It will just be bewildering that even out of the three arms of government that we have in Nigeria, it is only the parliament and parliamentarians that our people have access to. Like me and others.

“We go home almost every time and we are the ones when they give birth to a new baby, they ask for naming ceremony funds. When they are building a new house, it is from us they ask for assistance.

“So, if the parliament was not there, who do you expect that our constituents would run to? The parliament is not just to sit down at the plenary and make laws alone. And when we make laws, we follow it up.”

The Senate spokesman said the National Assembly is the soft target of every critic but vehemently opposed the reduction of the money paid to lawmakers.

“If we are on part-time, can’t the same amount of money be paid to part-time legislators?” he asked.

“We are in Abuja, is it the National Assembly that is giving us housing? Is it the National Assembly that is employing domestic staff for us? We are here on our own.

“We don’t get allowances for drivers. The allowances we get from housing are always deducted from our salaries. They give it once in four years and they deduct it every month.”

He also said the official vehicles lawmakers get weren’t registered in their names and weren’t for them. He, however, did not clarify whether lawmakers inherit the vehicles after their tenure.

In the past, controversy has enveloped the monthly earnings of federal lawmakers. In August 2024, Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, said he got ₦13 million as Senator while current members of the 10th Senate receive ₦21 million monthly. The upper chamber of the National Assembly immediately disproved the claim.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Friday said opposition political parties won’t get their acts together if they keep criticising everything about the President Bola Tinubu administration and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Akpabio spoke at the commissioning of the newly constructed Left-Hand Service Carriageway in the nation’s capital, Abuja. The event had some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains like former governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Ayo Fayose (Ekiti) in attendance.

The Senate president referenced Tinubu’s statement during his Democracy Day address before a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday, June 12, 2025.

Tinubu had refuted allegations that the APC was on a mission to asphyxiate opposition parties and turn Nigeria into a one-party state. The president, however, said he was happy to see the opposition in disarray.

On Friday, Akpabio said, “Like the president said that he does not want a one-party state for Nigeria. He is praying that the opposition would put their houses in order.

“Try and put your houses together before the next election so that nobody would accuse anybody of trying to stifle the opposition.

“But if you expect me as a representative of the president and as Senate president to chair over your troubles and put it together, I would not do that.

“That is why the president said he wants you to come together but if you cannot come together, he would not help you to come together. This is politics.

“And you will never come together when you continue to tell lies on daily basis. And when you criticise everything. Nothing is good in your country. Was Nigeria like this in 1960. Was Abuja like this three years ago?” he queried.


With a litany of court cases arising from intra-party squabbles and protracted leadership crises rocking main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), some politicians seem to have made the APC a darling, especially with the recent defection of two PDP governors to the APC — Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta) and Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom).

Some dissatisfied PDP, LP and APC chieftains have also joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in recent months amid talks of a coalition to unseat APC’s Tinubu who is seeking a re-election in 2027.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who also spoke at the project commissioning on Friday, dismissed the coalition led by opposition arrowheads Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Nasir El-Rufai.

Wike told the people of Abuja not to give “to those who you don’t know whether their names would be in the ballot or not”.

“Up till now, they’ve not settled among themselves which of the coalition. Is it the left or the right? Coalition that was born and died the same day,” he added.