Desmond Elliot: The Prodigal Son Returns

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Certainly, if the picture in question is the one that showed Hon. Desmond Elliot on his knees before Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to the President, begging for forgiveness. That picture capped a journey that started months earlier, far from Aso Rock, inside the bruising politics of Surulere.

For over a decade, Elliot represented Surulere Constituency I in the Lagos Assembly, riding a Nollywood name into a political career that outlasted many people’s expectations. In 2026, chasing a fourth term, he ran into a wall. He pulled out of the APC primary, claiming his supporters were intimidated and shut out of the process.

But what did the numbers say? Barakat Odunuga-Bakare got 11,385 votes; Elliot got 270.

The fire behind that fall had been burning since 2025, when Mudashiru Obasa was removed as Speaker of the Lagos Assembly. Gbajabiamila later said the crisis nearly cost him his job as Chief of Staff, and pointed fingers Elliot’s way. Elliot pushed back, telling Channels Television he was out of the country when the plot against Obasa was hatched and had nothing to do with it.

Whoever’s version holds up, the fallout was enough to crack something between two men Elliot has always called mentor and protégé. He’s referred to Gbajabiamila as his “Oga” for years. So when he knelt to ask for pardon, it touched a nerve that runs through how political loyalty works in Lagos, and in Nigeria generally.

This isn’t Elliot’s first brush with public backlash either. He once dismissed #EndSARS protesters as “children” and pushed for social media regulation shortly after, drawing accusations of hypocrisy from the same young people who made him famous. Constituency projects, including a modest pedestrian bridge and a public toilet, added more fuel to that fire.

None of that history gets erased by one apology. But Nigerian politics has a habit of offering second acts to those willing to eat humble pie. Elliot has clearly decided the mentor relationship is worth more than his pride. Perhaps, with the uncharitable comments being thrown his way, he will also realise (if he already hasn’t) that in politics, nobody forgets who stood where when things got tough.