Politics is perhaps the only battlefield where men are applauded loudly while walking unknowingly toward their own destruction. It is a theatre of smiles hiding daggers, of handshakes masking calculations, of loyalty rented temporarily until ambition suddenly defaults on payment.
And nowhere is this brutal reality currently playing out more dramatically than in the unfolding spectacle between Hon. Desmond Elliot & Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief Of Staff to the President.
What we are witnessing is not merely a disagreement between two politicians. No. This is a collision between political creation & political creator. A classic battle between a beneficiary of power and the structure that manufactured him. It is the age-old conflict that emerges when a man begins to mistake access for ownership, favour for independence, & borrowed influence for personal invincibility.
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Before proceeding, let me state clearly so emotional interpreters do not deliberately derail the essence of this discourse: I do not know Femi Gbajabiamila personally from anywhere. I am neither his spokesman nor an APC propagandist. This is simply political observation stripped of unnecessary sentiment & examined through the cold lens of realism.
Because whether people like it or not, politics is not governed by wishes. It is governed by structures.
And structures, especially in Nigeria, do not reward emotional idealism. They reward alignment, loyalty, patience, usefulness & strategic obedience.
That may offend many people. But offence has never altered reality.
Too many people analyse politics as though it is a Sunday sermon about fairness & equal opportunity. It is not. Politics resembles chess far more than morality. Every move has consequences. Every alliance comes with hidden clauses. Every elevation creates future expectations. And every beneficiary of power eventually faces the dangerous temptation of believing he ascended purely by personal brilliance.
That temptation has buried many political careers.
There is a reason wise elders say the man who falls into a ditch becomes a lesson to those behind him. Human beings rarely learn from advice; they learn from visible consequences.
This current drama is one of those consequences.
For 12 uninterrupted years, 3 complete terms, Hon. Desmond Elliot enjoyed one of the most stable political runs imaginable in Lagos politics. That did not happen by accident. In a state as politically sophisticated & ruthlessly organised as Lagos, longevity is never a coincidence.
People were persuaded to step aside for your ambition. And step aside they did, without obvious disobedience or rancour.
Ambitions were managed.
Calculations were made.
Structures were deployed.
Doors were opened.
Resistance was neutralised.
Political capital was spent.
And towering above that machinery in your domain stood Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
Now let us be intellectually honest enough to acknowledge the full truth. Gbajabiamila didn’t just support Desmond Elliot merely out of humanitarian affection. Politics is transactional everywhere on earth. Influence is an investment, not charity. The political godfather gains prestige, dominance & strategic expansion by producing loyal proteges. The proteges gains access, protection & elevation. You ride on the neck of a tiger to get power. Power that your own influence couldn’t get for you.
Both parties benefited.
But here lies the central tragedy of this entire affair: the moment the arrangement no longer perfectly favoured the beneficiary, the structure that once appeared wise, benevolent & indispensable suddenly became “evil.”
That transformation is what many observers find deeply troubling.
One cannot happily ride on the back of a tiger for over a decade, wave majestically to the crowd while enjoying the elevated view, & then suddenly begin screaming that the tiger is wicked simply because it now demands control of direction.
The tiger did not change.
Its nature was always the same.
Only convenience changed.
And this is where the matter transcends politics & enters the territory of character.
