Honourable Desmond Elliot is a Lawmaker currently on his third term in the Lagos State House of Assembly. The actor and filmmaker who is seeking to represent Surulere State Constituency 1 for the fourth time, in this interview with select journalists tells FLORA ONWUDIWE his achievements in his constituency in the last 12 years and why he is seeking reelection

What would you point as major achievements in the Lagos State House of Assembly in the last 12 years?

Oh, I’ve been part of some very important bills motions. Bills like the Establishment of Cancer Institute, Bills like the Neighborhood Corps. Bills like the Tourism Promotion Agency. Harmonising of the Environmental Law.

The one I’m currently working on, which is going to a Second Reading. And we’ve done public hearing. Public hearing is the Lagos State Public Works Corporation Law. That law seeks to have an even distribution of public works in every division. We call it I-B-I-L-E division across Lagos State.

So that one part is not suffering from that kind of development. And then public works seeks to have an immediate response to deep issues when it comes to road infrastructure in Lagos State. So, these are parts of the laws I’m very excited about. There are still many more. There’s one, again, about the digitalization of the medical sector.

That is a motion that I brought personally. For instance, if you are in Randle General Hospital, and you decide to go to Gbagada General Hospital, you don’t need to start finding out how your case can go.

With your code and everything, it’s already imputed. So, on the spot everything about a patient is already known. If you go to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), and maybe there’s no bed space, your history is already known.

So, all that, carrying all these reports about, you must get a referral. Referral goes into your system. By the time you get there, they just log into the system, put the code, and then they already know everything about your history.

So, that’s the digitalisation of the medical sector as far as this is concerned. So, these are things that are very important as far as views, motion, and matters of public importance are concerned in Lagos State. So, I’m proud to be a part of it.

Besides legislative duties outside the House of Assembly. You know the kind of system we live in now in Nigeria, we do not only do Oscar, watch, watch. All the things we do in Nigeria, you can’t just say you are there to go and make laws alone.

You must be seen to be responsive to your people. So, at the end of the day, you have to be responsive. You have to be there for the people. Besides that, we also become responsive in the area of sports.

What youth development or communitybased programme did you embark on?

We organise football programmes just to bring communities together. Like the one I did last year, the Right Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila Football Competition. We brought new kids. We got 32 schools to get involved across Surulere. We’re also helping the widows.

Let me put it that way, widows in different programmes. We give them stipends every month, and we do it in batches of six months. One good thing I know I can beat my chest about is the changes in the power sector in Surulere.

Ten years ago, if you were here, we had epileptic power situation. It was very bad. And today, the story is different. I’m not EKo DisCo, I’m not NEPA. But we tried to make sure we revamped a lot of places where they didn’t have transformers.

We made sure transformers were readily available. In areas where they did not have pre-paid metres, I facilitated a whole lot of pre-paid meters for the people. Anytime there’s a scheme, like where we had the Zero MAP scheme, I made sure I put in a lot of our constituents in it. Now, we just finished the Zero MAP scheme.

I also made sure a lot of our constituents benefited from it, where you don’t have to pay for it. I also facilitated a lot of roads. More than 30 roads across Surulere. Making sure the roads are all there.

These are pictorial evidence in copy of his book that documented the projects in which I executed. From Ilumo, Ilusheyi, Olumegbon, Suenu, Johnson, Animashaun Street, Haji Bode, Oyabiyi. You know, all these roads are there for you to see. We also help with the General Certificate Examination (GCE) forms. You know how expensive those forms are.

I also facilitated by giving our constituents Lag Ride, so that they can benefit from it. I did the first startup, and I let them pay the rest.

As they start to make their sales, they pay. I do a lot of work on the environment as well. I said something during the interview at my launch, in my declaration. I said, I made sure there was consistent and constant delisting of our canals and the drainages.

The reason why we did that is to make sure that when the rains come, you don’t have over-flooding. Or even if there was flooding, it quickly disappears.

We make sure again that the environment is clean. There was a time I was consistently making sure that all this indiscriminate dumping of refuse was corrected.

Because you find out that people are always dumping refuse just anyhow. And that was not good. So basically, all of these things, they might not necessarily be our responsibilities.

But we make sure that our constituents benefit and they feel our impact. It’s not enough to just stand on the floor of the house and just talk. Here (Flipping through his book that documented all the executed projects for his constituents) these are graduates.

You know, we took them to the Open University (NOUN) and they’ve graduated. A lot of them are working today. Oh yes, we sponsor from the office. And sometimes it’s not even from the work look.

We give computers to children. Then, this one is very important; I also take children out on different programmes. I take them to Giwa Gardens, to the cinemas, even with residents. Just to establish relationships, to connect with them. This one is one very important one.

This is Giwa Gardens for the kids. And then here, this last page. This shows you what the constituency office spends monthly.

So, this is cash from the month of July last year. So, the month of July was 39 million Naira, as you can see. This is the month of August. That is 7.7 million. And verification is very easy.

You can go to my office at 95 Ogunlana Drive in Surulere. Tell them you want to see the breakdown where people sign. And you see how it is.

I just did about six months of it before this book was released. Here are people who have facilitated their travels abroad. This one is in the UK; this one is in the US.

This one is in Manchester, Manchester. This is Cardinal Francis Arinze in Rome. That’s me and some of the people to which I facilitated their trips. So, basically these are things we do to connect with our people.

To make sure we are not too far from them and they are not too far from us. And that, you know we have a kind of synergy that always brings us together.

So, why are you seeking reelection to the House?

That’s a very good question that people ask. It’s good that Nigerians are educated on this topic. When you’ve been proven to show capacity, like I want to believe I have.

By the time you go back, you become a ranking member. Anywhere around the world, ranking members get benefits of democracy in the House before new members. It is a lay-down rule. It’s not a rule that is constitutional.

But even in America, if you notice in America, if you watch Cable Network News (CNN), when people want to talk on behalf of different committees, you see them, they tell you, leader of the caucus.

They don’t become leaders by becoming first-timers, second-timers, and thirdtimers. Sometimes in America, they have been there for almost 10 terms before they become leaders.

I’m not saying I want to be there for that long. But I’m saying that the same applies. By the time you become ranking, like I will be, you understand, I become one of the highest or one of the most senior in the House.

Being one of the most senior, a lot of things accrue to us. It comes to us first before it goes to our younger colleagues. I started the first term, second term. I had seniors take all that into their constituencies. I think Surulere deserves the right to benefit from those things. Jobs become multiple, if not quadruple.

Different things come. Basically, it is out of the fact that, for Surulere, and a very clear example is my leader, Right Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila when he did his third term, the benefits he got as a fourth-timer were enormous.

More than three times what he did as a third-timer. The benefits he got as a fifth-timer, that’s when he became Speaker. I mean, it’s left for you people to imagine. So, you can imagine what it is in the legislature when you send people, you know, to stay longer, especially, when they have demonstrated capacity.

A picture flooded the internet where Hon Gbajabiamila endorsed Barakat Bakare for the same office you are going in for. Is there a rift between you and him?

Firstly, I’d like to say, as a Yoruba boy, we’ve been trained from home. You can never have a quarrel with your leader, with your oga, a leader, an elder, and all that. So, I can never have a rift with him. If you notice, there was one article that said, ah, if I’ve erred, I apologize.

I said that because, at the end of the day, as they call them, Omoluabi, you must, first and foremost, listen to your leader to know where you have erred.

And you have a right to ask, oh, if I’ve erred, oh, I’m sorry. Well, let’s sit down at the table. I can never speak negatively about him because all through my 10, 11, 12 years as Honourable, and we’ll go beyond by the grace of God, there’s never been a time where I’ve spoken ill of him.

He probably may have had one or two reservations, but he’s a leader. It’s also in my own jurisdiction to ask my leader, what have I done wrong? So, he endorsed her, you know, seemingly, because he didn’t make any open proclamation.

So, it is alleged. So, we have to wait till he makes that open declaration, to which I don’t even think that might happen because both myself and her are in the same family. So, it is a circumstantial issue till when it’s clear.

If he gives reasons, then we’ll know. We’ll pick it up from there. Well, I had told him I was going to see the Apex Leaders, to which I did. I needed his blessings for that and he gave me his outright blessings.

So, if I was going to see the Apex Leaders, it definitely meant I was going to tell them, I’m not going to go and sit down with them to go and have fun. So, he definitely knew that I was going to see the Apex leaders. I didn’t do that without his permission. I had to do that. Which is one of the reasons why longevity in government is good.