Nigerian actor and politician Desmond Elliott has apologized for labelling Nigerian youths as “children” in the aftermath of the 2020 #EndSARS protests across the nation. The Nollywood star was dragged on Twitter after he pushed for the regulation of social media, describing some elements of the Nigerian youth as “children.”
During a recent appearance on TVC’s “Your View’’ program, the thespian publicly apologized for his comments.
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He said:
“What I can say is, I think forgiveness is divine. I mean, no one knows 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.’’
Elliott, who is seeking to return to the Lagos State House of Assembly, preached love and said he wasn’t scared or ashamed.
“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 curse 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.”
He also clarified the people he referred to as children:
“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.”