Rhodes-Vivour vows Yoruba campaign for Lagos 2027

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the African Democratic Congress candidate for the Lagos governorship in 2027, has declared that he has mastered Yoruba well enough to campaign in the language, seeking to neutralise a flashpoint that dogged his previous bid for the Alausa seat.

Speaking on Arise Television’s morning programme on Thursday, Rhodes-Vivour said he engaged a private Yoruba tutor after the 2023 election and has made steady progress. “Culture and language is very, very important, and I’ve gotten a Yoruba teacher, and I’ve learned Yoruba, and I can campaign in Yoruba, and that is wonderful,” he stated.

When a presenter greeted him in Yoruba, the architect-turned-politician responded with a smile and the phrase “Mo ki gbogbo yin” — “I greet all of you” — demonstrating the facility he claims to have acquired.

The declaration marks a deliberate recalibration of the narrative that surrounded his 2023 Labour Party campaign. Then, Rhodes-Vivour, whose father is Yoruba and mother Igbo, acknowledged on Channels Television that while he understood the language, he was not fluent and did not “think in Yoruba.” He attributed the gap to years of education abroad, including stints in France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Critics seized on the admission, questioning his cultural authenticity in a state where Yoruba identity remains a potent political currency. Supporters, including elements of Afenifere and Eko Forum, countered that his Lagos roots and family history were beyond dispute.

Three years later, the candidate is positioning language competence as one tool among many rather than the decisive test of belonging. He insisted that the lived experience of ordinary Lagosians transcends ethnicity. Flooding, the housing shortage, gridlocked roads and what he described as a broader “loss of dignity” affect residents across linguistic and ethnic lines. “My passionate interest is to ensure that we have a Lagos that no longer stinks,” he said. “All of us are going to hear the smell… Everybody is experiencing the failure of our flooding, of our housing crisis, of the traffic… and that connects all of us.”

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Rhodes-Vivour emerged as the ADC’s Lagos flagbearer after a primary in May 2026, defeating Owolabi Salis. The party has since named him alongside running mate Gbadamosi Babatunde Olalere as its official ticket for the February 2027 poll. Campaigns formally opened earlier this month.

In the same Arise interview, he also revisited an old constitutional argument against the APC’s expected candidate, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, arguing that an adult oath of allegiance to a foreign country should disqualify him under Nigerian law — a claim the Lagos APC has dismissed as a recycled 2023 talking point better left to the courts.

Whether improved Yoruba fluency will blunt identity-based attacks remains to be tested on the campaign trail. What is already clear is that Rhodes-Vivour intends to meet the cultural expectation head-on while insisting that competence in drainage, housing and transport will ultimately matter more to voters than the language in which those policies are pitched.