What is all the fuss about Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour?

Suddenly and unexpectedly, there is this online frenzy about Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the 2023 Labour Party Lagos Gubernatorial Candidate, as a man whom Lagosians must vote for because he is coming to salvage Lagos from years of bad governance.

Expectedly, his nimble followers, who I think are mostly people dissatisfied with the presidential results which made Ahmed Bola Tinubu the president-elect, have thrown their weight behind this man and branded him as the architect of a new Lagos.

He, too, has also branded himself as the saviour of the people as he decried in his pinned tweet: “Lagos is working”,our drainage systems say otherwise,The traffic, harrassment by state backed youth,building collapses,Zero transparency & accountability,all say, LAGOS IS NOT WORKING. It is time to make Lagos Excellent again. It is time for a Lagos that revolves around YOU.” Those are his exact sentences.

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There is something generally common about most people who are passionate about this man, Gbadebo Rhodes: that is the somewhat uncanny desire to vote the current governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu out of office. It is also the deep-seated hatred for the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the only dominant party that has remained in office for many years in Lagos.

In a way, this campaign of calumny against Babajide Sanwo-Olu shows that it is primarily motivated by the desire and bandwagon effect to end one-man rule in the state, to dismantle the party dominance of his godfather, Bola Tinubu, and not necessarily because the man has failed Lagosians or performed woefully in his first tenure as a governor.

This current agitation is not about the incompetence of Babajide Sanwo-Olu nor the competence of Gbadebo Rhodes; it is solely about believing that power should not remain in someone’s domain for long, even if the person has diligently served well and surpassed the expectation of the people. This belief is a faulty one and it often spells disastrous outcome. In Nigeria, we have seen this happen again and again: because of people’s desire to see a change in government, unfit and inexperienced candidates are voted into power, and the people live to suffer the consequences of their ill-informed choices.

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This current movement reminds me of the Sai Baba’s supporters in 2015, a movement which later turned out to be a disaster–a disaster that will take a very long time for many Nigerians to recover from.

These people (and I think they are mostly the Ibos) who support Gbadebo Rhodes are also quick to point out that Lagos belongs to everyone and that they can come from any part of this world to become a governor of the state. While this may be a convenient assertion to make, it shows that the government’s failure in their state of origin is responsible for the mass migration to Lagos and has made the state overpopulated. This is why they must shun hypocrisy, stop fanning the embers of ethnic bigotry and confront their home governors.

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I also think it will be dishonest to claim that there is nothing to show for 20 years in Lagos. Lagos is obviously a better state with more resources today than 20 years ago. And now, as the 2023 gubernatorial elections draw nearer, if we must vote, as conscientious citizens that truly want change, we must be brave enough to look beyond our primordial sentiments or ethnic affiliations.