Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Lagos Labour Party governorship candidate became a social media sensation after his campaign fliers were all over Twitter in the first quarter of 2022.
He may not necessarily agree, but the politician has been ‘entering the eyes’ of Nigerian ladies, especially on Twitter, since he declared to run on the LP platform.
Gbadebo, who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the Labour Party, emerged winner of the latter’s substitution primary election, which took place in Ikeja, Lagos, on Wednesday, August 10.
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In this article, QUEST TIMES shines a spotlight on the Lagos Labour Party guber candidate:
Gbadebo Patrick Rhodes Vivour was born on March 8, 1983, in Lagos, Nigeria.
He is 39 years old.
Advocacy activities
Gbadebo is the convener of Nigerians Against GMOs (NAG), an organisation that advocates against the authorisation or introduction of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) into Nigeria.
He has also been a frontrunner in advocating for the restoration of history in the school curriculum.
He was also instrumental in the #EndSARS movement of 2020.
Educational background
The Lagos-born politician attended Nottingham University, where he bagged a degree in Architecture before proceeding for his Master’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.
The university awarded him a distinction for his Master’s degree thesis, “Traditional revolution: formalising the informal: a proposal for the “periphery urbanite” Lagos, Abuja & Port-Harcourt,” which focused on building a network of recycling facilities and garbage collectors in those cities to turn waste into a significant source of income and employment.
After successfully completing his Master’s degree in 2008, he returned to Nigeria for his one-year mandatory youth service.
Business career
While still studying at MIT, he collaborated with the American and Chinese governments during the reconstruction of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the Beijing Olympics, respectively.
He then proceeded to work for some of Nigeria’s top architecture firms, including Consultants Collaborative Partnership (CCP) and Patrick Waheed Consultants, before establishing his own company to address the housing crisis in Nigeria by using creative and unconventional construction techniques to build affordable housing in Nigeria.
He founded Spatial Tectonics and serves on the boards of Alhuda Construction Nigeria and Delta International Commercial City Ltd.
Political career
The 39-year-old delved into politics in 2007 when he contested for the Ikeja Local Government Chairmanship position under the umbrella of the KOWA party.
In 2019, he, however, clinched the party ticket to represent Lagos West senatorial district at the national assembly under the PDP.
He lost to Senator Adeola Olalekan (Yayi).
During an exclusive interview with Quest Times, Gbadebo revealed his real reason for leaving the PDP. According to him, “it is pretty much around the party’s flag-bearer (Jandor). There was an agreement that I will withdraw to accept to be deputy governor. I was endorsed by the party leaders for the position but he (Jandor) insisted that he would rather work with another stranger (Funke Akindele) as the deputy governor.”
He is married to Dr Ify Aniebo, PhD, a molecular geneticist.
Information about their children are still sketchy at press time, but will be made known later as soon as we get the details.