Lagos State governorship hopeful Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour has said he can now campaign in Yoruba after hiring a teacher to help him improve his command of the language.
Rhodes-Vivour, who is seeking the African Democratic Congress governorship ticket ahead of the 2027 election, made this known during an interview on Arise TV on Thursday.
Speaking about the importance of language and culture in Lagos, he said he had taken steps to learn Yoruba and was now able to use the language while campaigning.
“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 said.
He also demonstrated his progress during the interview when a presenter greeted him in Yoruba.
After being told that the greeting would be translated for him, Rhodes-Vivour laughed and responded, “Mo ki gbogbo yin,” which means “I greet all of you.”
The ADC aspirant, however, said his focus goes beyond language, noting that issues affecting Lagos residents cut across ethnic groups.
He mentioned flooding, housing and traffic as some of the problems affecting residents of the state.
“My passionate interest is to ensure that we have a Lagos that no longer stinks.
“All of us are going to, when you translate it, all of us are going to hear the smell, right? Everybody is going to experience the failure, 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,” he said.
Rhodes-Vivour’s comments come after his Yoruba-speaking ability became a major talking point during the 2023 Lagos governorship election.
During that election, he faced questions over his fluency in Yoruba because of his mixed Yoruba and Igbo heritage. His father is Yoruba, while his mother is Igbo.
In a March 2023 interview with Channels Television, Rhodes-Vivour said he understood and could speak Yoruba but was not fluent.
He explained that his upbringing and education, including time spent outside Nigeria, contributed to his limited fluency.
His remark that he did not “think in Yoruba” also drew criticism during the 2023 campaign.
Rhodes-Vivour later said he had engaged a Yoruba teacher to improve his fluency and connect better with the people.
He contested the 2023 Lagos governorship election under the Labour Party and finished third behind the incumbent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress, and the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Abdul-Azeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor
