Veteran Actor and politician, Desmond Elliot, has again tendered a public apology to all for his comments about the youths during the October 2020 #EndSARS protest.
The Lagos lawmaker representing the Surulere I constituency at the State legislature was dragged on social media after referring to Nigerian youths who reacted to the shootings at the Lekki Tollgate as children.
He had pushed for the regulation of social media after the protest.
In his response, Elliot had in October 2020 issued a statement in which he apologised to those whose toes he stepped on with his comments.
However, the lawmaker, during his recent interview on TVC’s ‘Your View’, said he wasn’t referring to everybody as children but to those who were attacking the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, on his Twitter handle.
The lawmaker who begged for forgiveness, said the hatred he has received on the heels of the comment was ‘too much.
He said: “What I can say is, I think forgiveness is divine. I mean, no one owns it all. Something can be your truth and to another person, it might not be. I don’t think going back to bring out those sensitive moments would do anything.
“I think at the end of the day, I apologised for, and I’m still apologising to those who must have misconstrued what I said. I said I was taken by emotions but in the end, it still didn’t take away from the fact that the hatred is too much. The polity, the hatred is too much. We are all built on love. We can change things by love.
“I’m in politics now, eight years and I still stand on the fact that love conquers all. I mean, I’ve gone out on the street and people still cuss at me. But I’m not afraid, I’m not ashamed. Because they don’t understand the stress that you go through and I pick it from their point of view because someone just hoped that you could just help him or her. And at that point, you are stressed with so many things. So at the end of the day, it happened.
“I wasn’t referring to everybody as children. It was the people that were on my Mr. Speaker’s handle, that were talking to Mr. Speaker, I was referring to, and not everybody. And truly, they were teenagers, when I clicked on those who were cursing at Mr. Speaker. And that’s exactly what I said. But I’m sorry again. That’s what politics teaches you. You must learn. You must! You can never be prideful. You can never buga in politics. Who you be? So, you must humble yourself. If you wan buga, go inside your gym and get weight. Lose weight when you’re outside. Lose it!”