Lagos 2027: Lagos governorship aspirant Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour vows to campaign in Yoruba after being mocked during last election for not speaking the language fluently

Lagos governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has said he will conduct his campaign in Yoruba ahead of the 2027 governorship election.

Rhodes-Vivour made this known during an interview on Arise TV on Thursday, September 17.

He was responding to questions about his inability to speak Yoruba, an issue that featured prominently in criticism of him during the 2023 campaign following an interview in which he said he did not “think in Yoruba.”

The ADC candidate said he had taken steps since then to learn the language, noting that language and culture were important to his engagement with voters in Lagos.

“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 language and ethnicity would not be the only focus of his campaign, pointing to issues he said affect Lagos residents irrespective 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 some of the challenges confronting residents, arguing that their effects were 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.