The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday disclosed how President Bola Tinubu nearly fired him over the role of Surulere lawmaker Desmond Elliot in the political crisis that rocked the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Gbajabiamila, speaking at an APC stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos, traced his rift with the actor-turned-politician to the January 2025 impeachment of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker of the Assembly.
Gbajabiamila said the President summoned him to his Abuja residence at the height of the Obasa saga and confronted him with intelligence reports linking Elliot to the plot to destabilise the state legislature.
“I almost lost my job as Chief of Staff last year because of Desmond Elliot. You can go and verify,” Gbajabiamila told party faithful in Lagos. “Mr President called me to his house in Abuja during the Lagos Speaker Obasa saga.
He said, ‘I hear this Desmond is your boy, the one we gave you,’ and I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He then said Desmond was among those causing problems in the Lagos State House of Assembly.”
The Chief of Staff said he immediately rushed to Elliot’s defence, assuring the President that the Surulere lawmaker was not involved in the impeachment move.
“Immediately I said to Mr President, no, no, no. Desmond is not part of them. I haven’t even spoken to him. I didn’t know whether he was part of that. I said, no, he’s not part of them,” Gbajabiamila said.
But the President insisted based on available intelligence and ordered Gbajabiamila to warn his political godson to back off.
“I’m telling you from intelligence that he is part of them. Go and tell him to retrace his steps. This is what Mr President told me. I said, yes, sir,” Gbajabiamila recounted.
The Chief of Staff said he called Elliot and passed on the President’s warning, urging him to distance himself from the impeachment plot if he was involved.
However, three days later, the Director-General of the Department of State Services called Gbajabiamila with even more troubling news.
“Three days later, the Director-General of DSS called me and said there’s a problem. Your name is being mentioned all over the place. That you are the one behind, you are supporting Desmond in this event,” Gbajabiamila said.
The Chief of Staff said he reached out to Elliot a second time, this time asking him to issue a public statement distancing himself from the plot. According to Gbajabiamila, the lawmaker failed to do so, leaving his political mentor to bear the weight of the allegations alone.
“If not for the kind of relationship I have with the President today, I probably would not still be here as Chief of Staff,” Gbajabiamila said.
The Chief of Staff also accused Elliot of attempting to inject religious sentiment into Surulere politics, alleging that the lawmaker had tried to create division between Muslims and Christians in the constituency.
He further disclosed that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had written a letter to him to make a case for Elliot, but he maintained that religious sentiment had no place in the constituency.
The political storm that nearly cost Gbajabiamila his job began on January 13, 2025, when 32 out of 40 members of the Lagos State House of Assembly impeached Mudashiru Obasa while he was away in the United States.
The lawmakers accused the long-serving Speaker, who had held the position since 2015, of gross misconduct, high-handedness, intimidation of members, and financial mismanagement of Assembly funds.
Allegations against Obasa included the withdrawal of N43.5 billion for back-up vehicles for lawmakers and N17 billion spent on a gate to the Assembly complex — claims he dismissed as a political smear campaign tied to the 2027 elections.
His deputy, Mojisola Meranda, was immediately elected as the new Speaker, becoming the first female to occupy the position in Lagos history. The Assembly also removed the Clerk, Olalekan Onafeko, and dissolved all standing committees.
Obasa rejected his removal as illegal and unconstitutional, insisting that due process was not followed. He alleged that the chamber was broken into and his loyalists were intimidated during the proceedings. Armed security personnel from the Rapid Response Squad and Lagos Police Command took over the Assembly premises following the impeachment.
What followed was seven weeks of political paralysis, with parallel claims to the speakership, court battles, and intense behind-the-scenes manoeuvring by party leaders. On March 3, 2025, after weeks of negotiations and interventions by senior APC leaders including President Tinubu, Meranda resigned, paving the way for Obasa’s reinstatement.
On April 16, 2025, the Lagos High Court declared the January 13 impeachment proceedings unconstitutional, null and void. Justice Yetunde Pinheiro ruled that the Assembly had violated its own standing orders and the Constitution, stating that while the allegations against Obasa might have merit, the process followed was fundamentally flawed.
Elliot’s fourth-term bid and rift with Gbajabiamila
Gbajabiamila’s public reckoning with Elliot comes as the lawmaker seeks a fourth term in the Lagos State House of Assembly, a bid that has divided stakeholders in Surulere Constituency I.
The Chief of Staff has reportedly thrown his weight behind a female aspirant, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, further straining his relationship with Elliot.
When asked about the rift, Elliot had earlier said, “Our leader is a compassionate leader. A leader of thought. We are children. Children sometimes err. If I have erred in any way, my leader, I am sorry. Give me another chance, and let’s move on.”
Gbajabiamila, however, made it clear that religious sentiment has no place in Surulere politics, insisting that political office holders in the constituency have always related freely regardless of religious background.
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