Meet Gbadebo Patrick Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party’s governorship candidate in Lagos State

All eyes now seem to be set on the Labour Party’s governorship candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Patrick Rhodes-Vivour, following the victory of Peter Obi in the state during last weekend’s presidential election.

Gbadebo Patrick Rhodes-Vivour (also known as GRV) is an architect, activist, and politician. He is the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State for the upcoming election this weekend.

GRV was initially one of the nominees gearing up to contest under the PDP but pulled out just before the primaries were held. He then cross-carpeted to the Labour Party where he contested the primaries and emerged victorious after defeating former All Progressives Congress (APC) Chieftain Moshood Salvador.

Let us now take a closer look at who he is.

His background: On March 8, 1983, in Lagos state, he was born to Barrister Olawale and Mrs Nkechi Rhodes-Vivour. He comes from a family of lawyers as his father is a Barrister and his mother a former Supreme Court of Nigeria justice and jurist. His uncle is Bode Rhodes-Vivour, and his grandfather is the late Judge Akinwunmi Rhodes-Vivour. He is the great-grandson of Steven Bankole Rhodes, Nigeria’s second indigenous judge.

He attended Chrisland primary and secondary schools until JSS3, at which point he moved to Paris to attend Ecol Artive Berlin, where he finished his secondary education. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Nottingham and a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2008 after his first Masters. He later attained a second Master’s degree in Research and Public Policy; from the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

His activism: Rhodes-Vivour has been active in causes that affect Nigerians in every sphere of their lives in the area of good governance, health, education, the environment and so forth.

For instance, he is the convener of Nigerians Against GMO, an NGO organization that campaigns against the proliferation of genetically modified foods in Nigeria.

He collaborated to spearhead a 2,000-person march to the Senate in 2017 to raise awareness about environmental deterioration. Additionally, he has advocated for history to be taught in schools in Nigeria.

In honour of World Malaria Day and to inspire people, Rhodes-Vivour partnered with WellaHealth in 2022 to offer free health tests and insurance to 1 million Lagos residents with voter cards.

His political career: He was among the first individuals who benefited from the Not Too Young To Run legislation. As a member of the KOWA party, Rhodes-Vivour ran for chairman of the Ikeja Local Government Area in 2017. He stated that the lack of godfatherism in that party drove him to run for office. He was however defeated by the APC incumbent’s candidate.

He ran as a candidate for the PDP in the 2019 senate election to represent Lagos West. He described the incumbent as an absentee senator spending more resources pursuing a futile governorship bid in Ogun State, rather than focusing on Lagos West which has already given him its mandate.

He came second in the final polls, trailing incumbent senator and former governing party APC candidate Adeola ‘Yayi’ Olamilekanola by 243,516 votes to Adeola’s 323,817. Rhodes-Vivour received 39.40% of the votes, while Adeola received 41.38%. He challenged the outcome in court, alleging electoral violence and irregularities as grounds why the outcome should not be considered legal. But, the court ruled that this was insufficient and upheld his opponent’s election.

He is married to Dr Ify Rhodes-Vivour née Aniebo, a molecular geneticist by profession and the daughter of the former military administrator to Kogi and Borno states, Augustine Aniebo.