Why Some Youths Are Still Angry With Me

• LAGOS Lawmaker, Hon. DESMOND ELLIOT

In the last couple of years, Nigeria has experienced a political resurgence in its youth demography. Never in our nation’s history have the youths been as politically involved as they have been presently. During the last presidential election which was held last year February, the youths came out enmasse to make their voices heard. Before the election, they were visible and loud on social media. Many thought they would suddenly develop apathy towards the democratic process on election day, but they shocked a lot of people by turning up in their millions across the nation to vote for their preferred candidates. And from that election period last year to now, they have remained as vociferous as ever. They go on socia media whenever they wish to react to a government policy or express their grievances about a particular action or utterance made by a public office holder. And they can get really confrontational in the way they express their opinions. If there is one Lagos Lawmaker that has received his own baptism of fire from the ever combative and tough talking Nigerian youths, it is Hon. Desmond Olusola Elliot, the Lawmaker Representing Surulere Constituency 1. Back in 2020, during a plenary session at the Lagos State House of Assembly, while commenting on the Endsars protest, Desmond Elliot had referred to Nigerian youths as children and this did not go down well with the youths. It drew the ire of the nation’s young demography and the very brilliant Lawmaker has not been let off the hook since then.

But, regardless of what anyone might say about the gentleman, you have to give it to him, he has been a fantastic representative of his Surulere people. He has proven that he is a politician with a difference, one who is on a mission to serve the people and very committed to his personal objectives. Currently on his third term, he has done remarkably well. Many Surulere residents have admitted that he has far exceeded their expectations in terms of performance. It is no wonder that his people don’t joke with him. The young admire him, the elderly adore him. His humility makes it so very easy for them to warm up to him. You can never catch him going about with an air of arrogance, he understands clearly that to be a successful politician, you must be warm and open to your people and give them unhindered access to you. And that is exactly how Desmond Elliot relates with his people. This is why, in Surulere today, you could get yourself into trouble if you go around the constituency casting aspersions on their beloved son, Hon. Desmond Elliot.

The huge support and love he enjoys from his people shone through two weeks ago when Hon. Desmond Elliot put together his second Free Medical & Surgical Outreach. It was a big success. Not only did over a thousand people come out to seek medical help and benefit from the program, others simply came to support and appreciate the man they have all grown to respect as a person and as their representative at the Lagos State House of Assembly. And he reciprocated their love. He gave back to them just as much love and affection that he got from them. Hon. Desmond Elliot mingled with the crowd freely and personally attended to many of the patients waiting to see the doctors. He was particularly patient with the elderly and showed them such profound love that had many nodding their heads in obvious appreciation of his love for the weak and aged. He would hold their hands, hug them and lead them to their seats. It must be said that there were a handful of young pretty looking ladies who were hoping to get the attention of the dashing lawmaker and accomplished actor, but he barely noticed them. His eyes and focus were strictly on the weak and aged.

There was a huge turnout of people who came to seek free medical attention for their various ailments. Everyone was there. Women, men, from the young to the middle aged and the elderly, including the weak and the sick, everyone of them came to benefit from the free medical program. The project, an initiative of the hardworking and compassion driven Hon. Desmond Elliot, was created to cater basically to the medical needs of the less privileged in the community who cannot, at this time, afford to walk into a hospital and pay for the medical services they require. The doctors carried out a handful of surgeries such as fibroid surgery, lump excision, eye surgery, etc, and also treated patients with less complicated ailments. The ever resilient Lawmaker worked in conjunction with the Association of Resident doctors’ LUTH chapter who offered their professional services pro bono. They were not paid a dime but Hon. Desmond Elliot picked up the pre and post operation services which run into several millions of naira with the help of supportive individuals and organizations. And according to the actor turned Legislator who has earned for himself lots of respect from his constituents on account of his high sense of integrity, “all support funds were paid into the account of the Resident Doctors Association for accountability and transparency.”

This did not come as a surprise to those who know Hon. Desmond Olusola Elliot closely. He has always been a stickler for transparency and accountability. He detests it when anything that will smear his name is hovering around him, so he doesn’t let it happen at all. And clearly, from the look on the faces of the doctors and judging by the passion with which they offered their services to the people, it was evident they were completely satisfied with the efforts of Desmond Elliot. He made their job as fulfilling as he possibly could.

City People Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) was at the event. We asked Hon. Desmond Elliot to express how he felt about the huge turn out and success of the programme: “Extremely blessed. I feel extremely blessed, I must tell you. I thank all the doctors, the volunteers, I thank the people of Surulere. I also thank the two Speakers, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa. I am very thankful to everyone and to God, most especially, for making it possible for us to successfully operate on people who would naturally have spent about N500,000, N1m, but we are catering for such things and taking the burden of the cost off the people. I thank all the sponsors who just listened to me and donated money. I must state here that all monies went straight to the account of Association of Resident Doctors, it was from there that the disbursement came. That way, there was trust, transparency and they all felt carried along. The truth remains that, if you mean well for the people, it will show. I thank God because I truly mean well for them and to God be the glory, we were not disgraced. The following day had an even bigger multitude of people in attendance, and to this, we say thank you, Lord. So, I’m very, very excited.”

We also asked to know what the good people of Surulere should expect from him and he replied promptly, with brewing confidence, “There’s going to be more legislative prowess. I’m thinking of bringing up the Lagos State Orientation Agency, I’m bringing up a motion to revive the vocational organizational youth societies such as the Boys Scout, Boys Brigade in our society so as to curb the menace of drug addiction and also promote oneness among the youths. I also want to talk about the use of drugs in our society as well, bring the motion up so as to have a more robust discussion so we can encourage the young people and take their minds off these things. I also want to encourage private Small Medium Entrepreneurships within our community so that the government will encourage these people. We must build this state from the ground up and by my little quota, in voicing out my own part that the people of Surulere have given me, I’m sure I will be able to make a lot of changes. And also I want to talk about beefing up our health care system in terms of our insurance policies. I don’t think that what the insurance policies are offering today is enough in terms of coverage. Covering just malaria, typhoid and few others is not enough for a good insurance coverage. We should have cheaper insurance coverage for a larger volume of coverage, that is also one narrative I will love to take up at the floor of the house. These are just some of the many things in my mind that I want to do going forward. I also plan to make available for my people, access to water, provision of power, the injector power station is a dream that I have been working on since the eighth Assembly, hopefully before the end of this year, we should have constant electricity in every part of Surulere, not just in some parts. I can beat my chest on that. I’m so thankful to Hon. Gbajabiamila for his support on this move we have been making for some time now and then to Eko Disco as well for making sure this comes true to fruition. I am so glad that as a legislator, I have been able to harness these opportunities and make sure this happens in my constituency. There will be provision of more transformers, replacing the obsolete ones and making sure that everyone is fully given prepaid meters. These are things that people need to make life more meaningful for them.”

And what would he say has been the high and low moments serving his people, we wanted to know? The dashing looking Lawmaker replied, “Well, you know, due to the Endsars thing, there were little squabbles and misconceptions, but I know that it’s all a learning process. I’ve been able to explain my position, and articulate who I really am to the people. It’s not everything you hear that is true. You must keep an open mind. But at the end of the day, I still believe in the Nigerian youth. I still believe in their ability to bring in their best. I believe that they and we are the future of today, not even tomorrow. So, I won’t relent. I don’t care what anybody says or feels about me, but at the end of the day, the truth is we must deliver this country and make it better for everyone and that is what I think we should do.

Does it bother him that some youths still abuse and insult him even after all the explanations and apologies he offered? “Well, to be honest, not really. Because I know who I am and I know what I am about. I respect people so, there’s no way I can intentionally malign or disrespect the Nigerian youth. Some of them still hold this thing against me because they don’t know me and because they completely misinterpreted what I said. If they understood the situation very well, then they would understand that they have no reson to feel the way they do. It was just a badly misunderstood situation, that’s all. And because of the anger in the air at the time, everything was taken out of context and blown out of proportion. But it’s okay, its all gradually blowing over now.”