ADC's Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour Promises To Campaign in Yoruba Ahead of 2027 Lagos Guber Election

• Rhodes-Vivour, the ADC's Lagos governorship candidate, disclosed he has been learning Yoruba ahead of the 2027 election
• The ADC candidate faced criticism during the 2023 campaign over remarks that he did not "think in Yoruba"
• Rhodes-Vivour said flooding, housing, and traffic would be central to his campaign regardless of language or ethnicity

Legit.ng journalist Adekunle Dada has over 8 years of experience covering metro, government policy, and international issues

Lagos State - Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Lagos governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has said he will conduct part of his 2027 campaign in Yoruba after hiring a language teacher to help him learn the language.

Rhodes-Vivour disclosed on Thursday, September 17, 2026, during an interview on Arise TV, where he was asked about the Yoruba language controversy that trailed his 2023 campaign.

As reported by Vanguard, his comments then — that he did not "think in Yoruba" — were widely used against him during that race and became a recurring issue among critics questioning his connection to Lagos voters.

"This tribal thing, speaking language situation and all that. Yes, culture and language are very important, and I've gotten a Yoruba teacher, and I've learned Yoruba, and I'll campaign in Yoruba, and that is wonderful," he said.

Rhodes-Vivour shifts focus to infrastructure

Beyond the language question, Rhodes-Vivour said his campaign would centre on practical challenges facing Lagosians across different communities and backgrounds.

He pointed to flooding, housing shortages, and traffic congestion as the defining problems that cut across ethnic and linguistic lines.

"My passionate interest is to ensure that we have a Lagos that no longer stinks," he said.

He argued that the scale of those problems gave his campaign a unifying appeal.

"All of us are going to — when you translate it — all of us are going to hear the smell. Everybody 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, regardless of language," he added.

Rhodes-Vivour is no stranger to Lagos governorship politics. In the March 2023 election, he ran on the Labour Party platform and finished second behind Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour accuses APC guber candidate

Meanwhile, Legit.ng also reported that Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour raised fresh questions about APC's Obafemi Hamzat's eligibility to contest the Lagos guber election.

Rhodes-Vivour said his legal team challenged Hamzat's candidacy over testimony that Hamzat swore an oath of allegiance to America.

An immigration lawyer testified before the Lagos election tribunal in 2023 that Hamzat had gone through the US naturalisation process.