Desmond Elliot and The Enemy of Social Media

 Politics in Nigeria is the biggest business and a massively corrupt business at that. People who go into politics usually have their eyes on the wealth they dream to make, little wonders politicians who have milked the nation attempt to preserve it for their children or stooges. Politics in Nigeria is a treasury milking entreprise and nothing more. Politicians see taking public office as a do or die affair.

I want to talk about Desmond Elliot, the member of the Lagos State House of Assembly representing Surulere. Desmond Elliot is not new to Nigerians having enjoyed massive exposure from Nollywood. He was an actor, possibly still is but he is now a politician.

When Desmond made entry into Nollywood via a Taju Adepetu's TV series, Everyday People, it wasn't difficult to identify that his comely looks, not necessarily his talent would take him far. He struck across as a gentleman, the type who spoke reservedly and politely too. Even in films, a role where he acted as a rash man was always badly interpreted. This owed either to his inability to alter his natural disposition or his inability at convincing delivery on the role.

Desmond is certainly not in the mould of prolific actors like Ramsey Noah, Emeka Ike, Mike Ezuruonye, Jim Iyke and co whose acting prowess and delivery are almost flawlessly topnotch. He was just there. However his fine face gave him what he lacked in talent --Prominence. Personally, any film with Desmond Elliot had to be boring and I never wasted my time to sit to watch.

I think Desmond Elliot was only a known actor because of the tube exposure and that was all about him. He got into politics. It was easy for  people in his Surulere constituency to vote for him for two reasons. Firstly, because they could recognise him as an actor whose face they had seen on their television set however bland and even banal his delivery was. Secondly, the a-bit-shy and gentlemanly mien they saw and assumed of him.

Honestly, even now, I believe Desmond Elliot is gentle, possibly on the quiet side. He is superficially a nice guy. He just brings a lot of self consciousness into his acting and that is where it all goes sour. Perhaps, if he played a dumb role where he did nothing, he might be able to deliver a bit of proficiency. 

The assumption of Desmond Elliot as a nice guy, easy going, gentlemanly and handsome made him a likeable fella. He added politics to his slumbering acting fortune and got into the Lagos HoA. He served his first term and I hear his major achievement was the commissioning of a toilet with only two water cinsterns. He returned for a second term through the Nigerian political means I'm sure. 

Politics has changed Desmond Elliot. He has shifted from supposedly entertaining people to debasing them, treating people with shocking disdain. His recent comments have only showcased him as a well-rounded disappoitment. First, his puerile attack on Edo governor, Godwin Obaseki, that he was proudly a product of godfatherism. That statement only painted him as a bootlicker desperate to impress his political overlord. He derided himself by that patronising statement. He knew very well that godfatherism is what has bedevilled Nigeria politics and has always set us back many years.

Then, the #EndSARS protest came and we did not see Desmond Elliot being prominent in the protests as a youth on one hand and as a celebrity since the protest gathered momentum and strength because of the involvement of celebrities but no! Desmond would only stand on the floor of the HoA to disparage the youths by calling them children and canvass for the muzzling of the people's voice through the regulation of social media. What an idiosyncrasy of a lobotomized mind!  

Does he not know the power of freedom the social media brings? If the social media has been regulated, how would he have sold himself in 2014/15 when he got his godfather's faint-hearted nod to run for the membership of the Lagos HoA? If the social media had been regulated, how would his party have sold its hate to Nigerians against the previous government? If the social media was regulated, how would his party's dirty and black propaganda had got to the people?

His party rode to power on the wings of social media, his party generated hate and disseminated it through the social media. To them then, it was a beauty, the resilient tool to win popular support even though as it had become obvious that the intentions were self-serving.

Now, they are in power and social media is the fad and the tool people use to demand for justice, Desmond and his party men are jittering in wet pants with tails stuck on their bellies through their hind legs. When has social media become such a grotesque monster to be done away with or regulated? Should people not express themselves against a government that is not keeping to its promises to give them a better life? Isn't their rights to speech and expression no longer guaranteed under the constitution? Someone should tell Desmond that Nigeria is a democracy and social media is a democratic-participant platform which provides the libertarian freedom of generating, sending and acquiring information.

I know Desmond is a part of a government where extreme absurdities are the order of the day, he should realise that he is a project of godfatherism which makes him only a pawn on the chessboard of the godfather. Surulere people elected him to represent them not to service a godfather or do his biddings instead of serving them. One day, when the music turns macabre for the godfather and he no longer likes Desmond's face, the lackey would be trashed in the political bin. Where would Desmond return? To the same people he has treated with scorn, loath and disdain? 

The absurdities continue when another youth Mojisola Alli-Macauley representing Amuwo Odofin, a young lady of 43 who would have been expected to be a strong voice for youth allowed political privilege turn her against the people. Hers was the unfortunately spewing of verbal excrement on the youth. She took on the protesters and claimed that they were always high on drugs. Such sad vituperation for a woman who left secondary school in 1995 with no known academic attainment until 2015 when she gained admission to read Law at the Lagos State University where she's yet to graduate.

How did she get to this sad conclusion that youths are high on drugs? I am interested in digging deep into the life of this woman to know her better because I cannot imagine this Festac girl's attack on youth at a time like this. More coming on her soon.

Desmond and Mojisola's loathsome positions against the Nigerian youths will remain indelible in the minds of Nigerians. Desmond Elliot I hear is trying to deny what he said. It is on video. If he said he did not mean it the way it was construed, he should save his lies. What was he expecting when he stood on the floor of the House of Assembly during plenary to vomit his verbal nonsense? The HoA is supposed to be a hallowed chamber, so if he made his statement during plenary, it means he was pushing for it to be adopted as law.

As for Mojisola, there's a lot of time to find her out. I hear she used Covid-19 palliatives as personal birthday gifts to her friends and associates. Time will tell more.

I hope the duo find another job because 2023 will surely be their exit year from politics. That is if we do not experience another round of protests. I pray we don't because I read the strong words of the Paramount ruler of Calabar South, Prof. Itam Hogan that should there be another round of protests, it would consume political leaders.

Desmond if he has not soiled his hands in corruption as it now behoves investigative Journalists to beam their searchlights on him, can still make amends by genuinely without shedding crocodile tears apologise to the youths and begin to give the right repeesentation to his constituency. Of course, that will exclude the caricature projects he has been reported to be carrying out.