Checkout Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour Biography, Age, Career, Investments
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, also known as GRV, is a Nigerian architect, activist, and politician from Lagos State, Nigeria. Rhodes-Vivour was born and raised in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, Vondigest reports
GRV is the Labour Party’s (LP) gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State in the upcoming 2023 Lagos State gubernatorial election. He previously ran for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial seat of Lagos West in the 2019 Nigerian Senate elections.
Education
He attended Chrisland primary and secondary schools until JSS3, and then went to Paris to finish his secondary education at Ecol Artive Berlin.
He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Nottingham and a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He joined the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) after finishing his first master’s degree in 2008 and completed it in 2009.
He later earned a second master’s degree from the University of Lagos in Research and Public Policy (UNILAG).
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour Father and Mother
Rhodes-Vivour comes from a family of lawyers. He is the son of Barrister Olawale and Mrs. Nkechi Rhodes-Vivour. His uncle is former Supreme Court Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, and his grandfather is the late Judge Akinwunmi Rhodes-Vivour. He is the great-grandson of Steven Bankole Rhodes, the country’s second indigenous judge.
Reacting to a viral message claiming he is an Igbo man, purporting that he was born out of wedlock and not raised by his father. Gbadebo had this to say: “I am a Lagos boy, an Omo Eko Proper, no doubt! To those doubting my Yoruba pedigree, I advise you to read Lagos history if, as a Lagosian, you don’t know the Rhodes-Vivour family pedigree and our stellar contributions to the development of Lagos – foremost legal luminaries and judges from the 1800s such as Steven Bankole Rhodes, to my uncle the Supreme Court Judge Bode Rhodes-Vivour and my father, Barrister Olawale Rhodes –Vivour, a lawyer.
“The land upon which City Hall is built belongs to my family. My great parents’ estate owned the largest plantation in Lagos. I am an original Omo onile olona of Lagos. With so many high flyers in this Yoruba family that I have to emulate and surpass, I hardly have time for the 1939 April Fool’s day joke that ignited the Yoruba versus Igbo rivalry and its current divisive effects,” he said.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour Wife
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour family – He is married to Dr. Ify Rhodes-Vivour (née Aniebo), a molecular geneticist by profession, who is the daughter of Augustine Aniebo, the former military administrator of Kogi and Borno states.
Career
Gbadebo is a successful architect with extensive experience. When he was in the United Kingdom, he worked for Franklin Ellis Architects. Before entering politics, he worked for SISA, Cliff Consulting (now Building Partnership CCP), and Patrick Wayi in Nigeria.
Political career
Rhodes-Vivour ran for the Ikeja Local Government Area chairmanship under the KOWA party in 2017. He claimed that the lack of godfatherism in the party drove him to run under the platform. He was defeated by the incumbent APC candidate.
In 2019, he ran for the Senate seat of Lagos West on the PDP ticket. His campaign points were to revamp the infrastructure within the district and well as to get out the incumbent who he term as a “absentee senator spending more resources pursuing a futile governorship bid in Ogun State, rather than focus on Lagos West that have already given him their mandate”. He finished second in the final polls, trailing incumbent senator and former ruling party APC candidate Adeola ‘Yayi’ Olamilekanola by 243,516 votes to Adeola’s 323,817. Rhodes-Vivour received 39.40% of the votes, while Adeola received 41.38%.
He challenged the outcome in court, citing electoral violence and disruptions as reasons why the outcome should not be considered valid.
He is the Labour Party’s gubernatorial candidate for the Lagos State gubernatorial election in 2023. He was initially one of the nominees preparing to run for the PDP, but backed out just before the primary election.
He crossed over to the Labour Party, contesting a substitute election in which the party’s substantive candidate was to be chosen, and won with 111 votes, defeating former All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Moshood Salvador, who received 102 votes.
