Labour Party’s Governorship Candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour sits with Chude Jideonwo, host of #WithChude to discuss his ‘cross carpeting’ to Labour Party, and his plans when he becomes governor.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour shared his intentions for ‘a new order’ in Lagos. “a new order is good quality of life; a new order is when you are driving on the road, you are not stuck in traffic, and area boys are not knocking on your door, trying to rob you because you are driving through Apapa. A new order is quality education that can be applied to make life better and increase earning potentials,” he explained.
“When I become governor, we are going to deliver 4 rail lines in 4 years. The plan is that we need 160 kilometres of rails to make Lagos State work, and we are going to invest heavily in water transportation and make Lagos State, a truly intermodal city in terms of transportation. Once that happens, Lagos starts to open up because development becomes decentralized. It is now feasible to build housing in Ikorodu, Badagry, Ajeromi/ifelodun, and open Lagos up. So, everything is not coming to the center, and we now have self-sustaining cities across the state.”
“And then, we are going to fix the Agbero situation across the state. This has become a real issue; we need Lagos to become a twenty-four-hour city and security is essential to make that happen. We are going to work with them as stakeholders, because we need to look at this thing holistically, and equip them with alternative means of living. And because we are not a government that needs people to suppress and intimidate people not to vote, we are going to tell them that that job description is no longer available. So, we are going to put them in skills, and programs that allow that to happen.
On choosing to join the opposition parties (KOWA, PDP, Labour Party) to run for office in Lagos, instead of the ruling party, GRV shared, ‘It is a reflection of who you are and where you want to go. It is always easier to take the easy way out and join the big boys that are making things happen. But then, what is your desire, what is the impact you want to make? If I join the ruling party, especially in Lagos, the revolution, change and kind of impact I want to make on society in Lagos State, I will not have the free hand to do it. So, it defeats the purpose for me to join the APC. I was coming fresh from activism, so KOWA party was the perfect launch path to be able to handle my conscience, my ideas about Nigeria, and really understand Nigeria for who she is”.
He also addressed the opposition party claim that the development in Lagos state was their track record, “the state of Lagos that Bola Tinubu met was a state that already had all the embassies, all the banks, the ports, an international airport; everything that’s required for a city to work was already in place. The Third Mainland Bridge had already been built, imagine APC trying to a bridge a Third Mainland Bridge when it’s taken over 16 years to build over 16 kilometers of rail. So, there was a lot of infrastructure is already built that he met. What he now created was the infrastructure to collect money. Now the conversation is, all the money that he collected does not translate to infrastructural development that we see in the state”.
Watch the excerpts from the interview here:
#WithChude is a network of media products across TV, Film and podcasts telling stories that enable and strengthen the mind, the heart, and the spirit. The weekly interviews are widely syndicated across terrestrial television and social media platforms reaching an average of 8 million people weekly – positioning it as the most watched and most syndicated weekly talk show (digital + traditional) in the region. It has become a safe space for guests to talk about things publicly for the first time. Actor Joke Silva revealed that her husband Olu Jacobs was dealing with dementia with Lewy body for the first time on the show, and producer Kemi Afolabi opened up about her experience dealing with Lupus on #WithChude. That month, Lupus and Kemi Afolabi were among the top Google Nigeria searches. The interviews have been featured everywhere, from the BBC to the New York Times. The documentary and travelogue series #ChudeExplains has tackled issues from criminal justice reform to Gen Z coming of age. The show launches the #WithChude Global series in 2023.
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Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
