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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has said he will campaign in Yoruba ahead of the 2027 governorship election, after making efforts to learn the language.
Rhodes-Vivour, who contested the 2023 Lagos governorship election on the platform of the Labour Party, disclosed this during an interview on Arise TV on Thursday while responding to questions about his inability to speak Yoruba during the previous election campaign.
The issue became prominent during the 2023 election after an interview in which Rhodes-Vivour said he did not “think in Yoruba”, a comment that featured in the political debate surrounding his candidacy.
The ADC candidate said he had since taken steps to improve his Yoruba language skills, stressing that language and culture were important to his engagement with Lagos residents.
“This tribal thing, speaking language situation and all that. Yes, culture and language is very important and I’ve gotten a Yoruba teacher, and I’ve learned Yoruba, and I’ll campaign in Yoruba, and that is wonderful,” he said.
Rhodes-Vivour, however, said the issues he intends to campaign on extend beyond language and ethnicity, pointing to challenges that affect residents across Lagos regardless of their backgrounds.
“My passionate interest is to ensure that we have a Lagos that no longer stinks,” he said.
He identified flooding, housing and traffic as major concerns for residents, arguing that their effects are experienced across the state.
“All of us are going to when you translate it, all of us are going to hear the smell. Everybody is experiencing the failure of our flooding, of our housing crisis, of the traffic, of the loss of dignity of Lagosians, and that connects all of us, regardless of language,” he added.
Rhodes-Vivour finished second in the 2023 Lagos governorship election behind the incumbent at the time, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress. He is now seeking to contest the 2027 election on the platform of the ADC.
