How Desmond Elliot Nearly Cost Me My Job As Chief Of Staff — Gbajabiamila

ABUJA, NIGERIA — The Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has made a startling disclosure regarding the political storm that nearly cut short his tenure in the presidency.

​Speaking on Thursday at an All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives revealed that he was almost sacked by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last year. The friction, he explained, stemmed from the controversial impeachment saga that rocked the Lagos State House of Assembly and the alleged involvement of his political protégé, actor-turned-politician Hon. Desmond Elliot.

​The Midnight Summons and Intelligence Reports

​According to Gbajabiamila, the crisis peaked when President Tinubu summoned him into his private study at his Abuja residence. The President confronted him with high-level intelligence linking Elliot—who represents Surulere Constituency I—to the lawmakers plotting to destabilize the leadership of the Lagos Assembly.

​”Mr. President called me to his house in Abuja during the Lagos Speaker [Mudashiru] Obasa saga,” Gbajabiamila recounted to the attentive crowd of party loyalists. “He said, ‘I hear this Desmond is your boy, the one we gave you.’ I replied, ‘Yes, sir.’ Then he told me, ‘He is one of the people causing problems in the Lagos House of Assembly.'”

​Gbajabiamila stated that his instinctive reaction was to defend the lawmaker, despite not having verified the facts at the time. “Immediately, I told Mr. President that Desmond wasn’t part of them. But the President replied and said that from the intelligence he received, Desmond was actively part of them. He told me, ‘Go and tell him to retrace his steps.'”

ADVERTISEMENT

​DSS Intervention and Broken Promises

​The political pressure intensified three days later when Gbajabiamila received a phone call from the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS). The intelligence chief informed the Chief of Staff that security reports were now pointing fingers at Gbajabiamila himself, accusing him of covertly backing Elliot to orchestrate the ouster of Speaker Mudashiru Obasa.

​”The DSS DG called me and said there was a problem. He said, ‘Your name is being mentioned all over the place—that you’re the one behind the impeachment saga and that you’re supporting Desmond,'” Gbajabiamila revealed.

​Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the Chief of Staff reached out to Elliot, instructing him to immediately withdraw from the rebellious faction and issue a public disclaimer to clear both their names.

​”I called Desmond and told him what the President said, and asked him to leave the group if he was part of them. He denied his involvement to me. I then asked him to make a public statement denying his involvement in the impeachment saga, but till today, he hasn’t done it,” Gbajabiamila said, visibly washing his hands of the lawmaker’s actions.

​Context of the Lagos Assembly Crisis

​The revelations offer a rare peak behind the curtain of the high-stakes political crisis that began on January 13, 2025. At the time, a majority of the Lagos State House of Assembly members moved swiftly to impeach the long-serving Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, while he was vacationing in the United States, citing gross misconduct and financial mismanagement.

​The House had briefly installed Deputy Speaker Mojisola Meranda as the first female Speaker of the Assembly. However, the move ran into fierce opposition from the APC national leadership and President Tinubu himself. Following 49 days of intense legal battles, parallel legislative claims, and a judicial nullification of the impeachment proceedings, Meranda resigned, paving the way for Obasa’s reinstatement.

​Gbajabiamila admitted that it took his deep, long-standing relationship with President Tinubu to survive the political fallout of the event. Insiders suggest that this public distancing marks a definitive rupture in the political alliance between Gbajabiamila and Elliot, occurring amidst brewing local tensions over legislative tickets ahead of the upcoming political cycle.