Lagos isn’t internship centre: Rhodes-Vivour, Gbadamosi face reality – by Seye Oladejo
The Rhodes-Vivour/Gbadamosi ticket may have given Lagos opposition politicians something new to celebrate, but Lagosians should not mistake the unveiling of a ticket for the unveiling of a pathway to Lagos House.
A ticket is not a political structure.
A coalition is not a governing record.
Social-media visibility is not grassroots strength.
And ambition is not experience.
The latest opposition permutation is particularly interesting because it brings together two politicians whose journeys have been marked by repeated movement across political platforms and electoral contests.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour contested the 2019 Lagos West Senatorial election on the KOWA platform, moved to the PDP, later emerged as Labour Party’s 2023 governorship candidate and has now settled in the ADC. He is again the party’s 2027 Lagos governorship candidate.
Gbadamosi, for his part, contested the 2019 Lagos governorship election on the ADP platform, polling 4,780 votes, before contesting the 2020 Lagos East Senatorial bye-election on the PDP platform.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with political evolution.
But party-hopping is not political institution-building.
And Lagosians have every right to ask what, beyond another change of political platform and another electoral arrangement, qualifies this latest combination to administer a state as complex as Lagos.
LAGOS IS NOT A TRAINING GROUND
Lagos is not an internship centre for politicians seeking their first serious executive governance experience.
It is a sophisticated economy with a huge population, complex infrastructure, demanding urban-management challenges and an administrative machinery that requires experienced leadership.
The question is therefore straightforward:
Where is the governing experience?
Where is the record of managing a state bureaucracy?
Where is the experience of supervising a state budget?
Where is the evidence of successfully running a complex public institution?
Where is the tested record of converting campaign promises into government programmes and measurable outcomes?
The opposition cannot answer these questions with hashtags, rallies and political theatrics.
2023 WAS A STRONG SHOWING – BUT IT WAS NOT GOVERNANCE
Nobody should rewrite history.
Rhodes-Vivour had a significant electoral performance in 2023, polling 312,329 votes and finishing distant second to Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s 762,134 votes.
That result is part of the democratic record and should be acknowledged.
But coming second in a governorship election does not constitute a record of governing.
The 2027 question is therefore not simply whether Rhodes-Vivour can reproduce or improve his 2023 electoral performance. It is whether he and his running mate can demonstrate the institutional depth, political organisation and governing competence required to manage Lagos.
Those are two very different propositions.
A COALITION OF AMBITIONS IS NOT A COALITION OF CAPACITY
Rhodes-Vivour has said that he has spent the period since 2023 building grassroots structures and that the “Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of 2023” is different from the one contesting in 2027.
Excellent.
Let the structure speak for itself.
Let us see the wards.
Let us see the local-government organisation.
Let us see the polling-unit machinery.
Let us see the depth beyond social media.
Let us see the political network capable of sustaining a statewide campaign and, more importantly, supporting the enormous responsibilities of government after election day.
Lagos is too important to be governed by political experimentation.
WHERE IS THE PLAN?
The opposition can list housing, transportation, healthcare, education, flooding and economic development among its priorities.
But Lagosians deserve more than a catalogue of aspirations.
They deserve to know:
How much?
How soon?
Who will implement it?
What will it cost?
Where will the money come from?
What happens to ongoing projects?
What measurable results will Lagosians see?
Governance is not a PowerPoint presentation.
It is the difficult business of financing, implementing, supervising and delivering.
That is why the difference between wanting to govern Lagos and knowing how to govern Lagos matters enormously.
THE APC WELCOMES THE CHALLENGE
The Lagos APC welcomes the Rhodes-Vivour/Gbadamosi ticket.
Let the contest begin.
Let the opposition bring its candidates, its record, its structure and its manifesto before the people.
We will bring ours.
But they should not expect Lagosians to confuse political noise with political strength, party permutations with grassroots organisation, or electoral ambition with governing capacity.
The Lagos House is not won by assembling two names on a ticket.
It is won through years of organisation, service, political relationships, institutional knowledge and demonstrated capacity to deliver.
The opposition has unveiled its combination. But the combination itself is not the qualification.
Lagosians will ultimately ask the most important question of all:Why should we entrust the management of Lagos to you?
Until the Rhodes-Vivour/Gbadamosi ticket provides convincing answers to that question-with evidence rather than rhetoric-their much-publicised combination remains exactly that: a combination, not yet a pathway to Lagos House.
Mogaji (Hon) Oladejo, Spokesman for the Lagos APC
