How Oshiomhole laid groundwork for my political career- Elliot
Member of the Lagos State House of Assembly and Nollywood actor, Hon. Desmond Elliot has opened up on roles played by the former Edo State governor Adams Oshiomhole in his unexpected transition from acting to politics.
Elliot explained that Oshiomhole introduced him to President Bola Tinubu, laying the groundwork for his political career.
The Surulere Constituency 1 lawmaker made this known in an interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo.
Describing his early political connections, the 51-year-old actor recalled how Adams Oshiomhole invited him to meet Tinubu in Benin.
“One certain day, Oshiomhole told me—Comrade Senator—that Asiwaju (Tinubu) was coming to Benin. I think the next week or two weeks later, he asked me to come, to which I did. As Asiwaju came, I was on the table, and I was in awe seeing great personalities. Adams stood up, asked me to come, took me to Asiwaju on that table and said, ‘This is my son.’ He said, ‘Yeah, he knows me; he knows me.’ And he said, ‘He’s interested. This is my son.’ Asiwaju says, ‘Okay,’ now links me up with Sunday Dare, who then was his PA, because you can’t meet Asiwaju all the time,” he stated.
Elliot recalled how Tinubu took a liking to him early on, expressing surprise that a young actor like him would be so interested in politics.
“And I’ll tell you one of the remarkable things that happened. One day, we went to visit Asiwaju. And then, the man just, for some reason, loved me. I don’t know, maybe because he just thought, ‘This young boy who is having a career, what is this boy coming to look for here? But I was always talking with Uncle Sunday: ‘Oh, I want to see Daddy. I want to see Asiwaju.”
He recounted a memorable visit to Tinubu’s home with fellow actors during an election period when Tinubu was no longer running.
“And then one Sunday—it was one of these elections a long time ago—he wasn’t running. We went to see one of the aspirants—myself, Jide Kosoko, Mike Ezuruonye, and Chinedu ‘Aki’ Ikediezie —just like, you know, this particular aspirant was coming to see. And then we talked, and Uncle Jide just said, ‘You know what, let’s go to Asiwaju’s house.’ Then he was the former governor.
“We’ll just go to his house like that. You won’t believe me—we got there like seven. We didn’t leave there till after midnight. He was talking to us like we just woke up in the morning and said, ‘Daddy, good morning, we are going out.’ We, the actors, were just sitting there, and we were gisting with him, talking with him. Certain things happened in his government—he told us what he did to make certain things move. When we came out, Uncle Jide Kosoko was saying, ‘I said so; I told you guys. ‘You see, you see.’ I was so excited”, Elliot added.
