Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour Ready to transform Lagos State

   
                   

Owing to how Lagosians have expressed optimism over the leadership capabilities of the Labour Party Governorship candidate, Gbadebo Chinedu Rhode-Vivour, Eastern Eye Magazine had an exclusive interview with him and he is no doubt an asset for good governance as the wealth of experience he garnered while working with the Chinese and US government has increased his level of competence and diversity as he is set to carry out a positive turn around in the governance of Lagos state, the Centre of Excellence.

Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour, also known as GRV, is a Nigerian architect, activist and a passionate politician who will stop at nothing to transform Lagos state and ensure that tax payers get value for their money. He is the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour party for Lagos State in the upcoming 2023 Lagos State gubernatorial election

The 39 years old aspirant said he has what it takes to bring the change Lagosians have longed for as he believes in justice, equity and fairness.

Speaking on what the people of Lagos State should expect from him if elected as the governor of Lagos State Rhode-vivour said;

 “If I become the governor, I will make sure that quality people are in the right places, people that can potentially be governors will be local government Chairmen, and they will be visionaries as well. We will ensure they do what they are supposed to do.

“I went to very good schools, I went to MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private land-grant research university in Cambridge), and studied Architecture. I have worked with the Chines government, I worked with the American government, I worked in Lagos as well doing a lot of Architectural works and urban planning so you will have for the first time an Architect, a designer in charge of government and with that we will be creating a new and more beautiful Lagos, not just beauty a Lagos that works for the people in everything.

“The policies that will be implemented, how it will be implemented, the designs of Communities to Urban regeneration, local government will be independently run, sustainably run, it will be autonomous so they can do all the inner Roads.

“Don’t always look at Lagos as Lekki to Ikeja, when you enter inside Lagos you see how people are suffering. There are no good roads so we want the local government to rise up to responsibility.

“The feeling of Lagos State will be restored, Lagos is a state that believes in coexistence, excellence so as long as you are doing well we will encourage and enable you. Nobody is going to be stiffing you will multiple taxation, no body will threaten to close your shops because the origin of Lagos State, the people, the indigenes are people that are welcoming.

“My grandfather was a very proud Lagosian, he was a judge, he had three children, two of them crossed the Niger to marry, my father and my grandfather’s daughter, the only girl crossed the Niger to Imo state and married. Look at Funsho Williams that everybody loved, when he wanted to marry he went to Arondizuogu and found his wife. Those are the indigenous families. That’s why Lagos became what it became. Why someone like Nnamdi Azikiwe had his biggest political base in Lagos is because of how welcoming and how open the people are but now there’s an imported culture they are trying to bring in and we are trying to restore the feeling of Lagos.

“We will truly make it excellent because excellence does not discriminate. If you are a competent doctor we don’t care where you are from come and do the excellent doctoring work that we know. If you are paying your taxes why am I discriminating against you? Why am I collecting your money for 3 years then in the forth year, election year I now remember that ahh.. you are not really from hear.

“So we are going to create a free Lagos, a Lagos that works for everybody regardless where you are from as long as you are a tax paying member of the state and you are raising the levels of the state, you are not involved in crimes and criminalities the state must work for you. That’s the kind of Lagos you should look forward to.

 

 

 

“Lagos that will work for everybody as long as you are a tax paying member of the state and you are raising the levels of the state you are not into crime or anything the state must work for you . That’s the kind of Lagos you should be expecting.”

Speaking about the strike commercial buses embarked on Rhode-Vivor posited thus; “Firstly I’m in full support of the bus drivers strike because is a clear case of ‘monkey dey work baboon they chop’.

“They suffer so much, they are the ones maintaining the buses they are driving, they bear the cost and all this people are just taxing them. It is very inhumane so I’m in support of them standing up for their right because When you leave a bully to continue doing what they are doing they will only do worse, so in my government even the taxes that they pay they will get incentives.

“Look at what Soludo is doing in Anambra state, when you pay your tax you get health care insurance. That’s what it should be, when tax payers get value for their money people will be willing to pay their tax, you don’t need to fight them before they pay because they know that there’s direct benefit.

“All this money they’re collecting from bus drivers what are they using it for? Who is it benefiting? where is it going to who is accountable for it?

‘If elected as the governor of Lagos state you also will have a Lagos where for me as long as they’re paying taxes they belong to the common wealth of Lagos and get their direct benefit. Whether is access to affordable housing or health care insurance, Whether is getting knowledge that is privy to people in Lagos to make their lives better, they will all benefit because there will be no discrimination.

“We have a lot of things we have in store to ensure that you feel the presence of government so even when you Pay taxes you will know that yes this are the benefits that I’m getting from being a member of the common wealth of Lagos. So for instance when we do affordable housing we are going to be transparently open to the public, Transparently make it available to the public. It will not be somewhere where someone will hide and sell the houses among ourselves we will have a website for that and it will be publicized by media houses.

“As a tax payer you are supposed to have access to credit because it Is not normal that for you to buy a car you must have gathered all the money, for you to pay rent you must have gathered the whole money for a year

“These are things that put people into unnecessary stress and unnecessary heartbeat so we want to change all of that. For me is important that we have a situation where as long as you are paying taxes as long as you are a member of the common wealth of Lagos we are monitoring how you pay and manage your resources and we reward it. We can start up with credit worth ten thousand or twenty thousand and over time it goes to hundred thousand, over time it goes to two hundred thousand, over time it goes to one million, but we would have created a situation where you have access to money and as you use it and pay back we are increasing it that’s how the world works.

“Then you have your credit rate and at a certain point you will have access to mortgage to buy a house, so those are the kind of system we are going to put in place. Let me also give you another example; The informal sector, all those market women do you know they pay more taxes than some of the people that works in banks and nobody is accounting for that money and what do they get as benefit? Even the people that pay money at Ladipo market do you know how much they make from that market on a yearly basis? Yet the government will come and threaten them that they will come and close their shops because of environmental reasons.

“Is it not the LAWMA that they’re paying taxes to that are supposed to arrange that market and create the means by which it will be managed in terms of the waste system? Then imagine a market woman you are paying taxes and there is a creche for your child in that same market and is free so because of technology your children can be watching the same cartoon as the children of the governor of Lagos state.

“You can be getting the same type of education and the same type of toys as the children of the governor of Lagos, now that’s what I’m talking about the Lagos that want the best for it people.

Expressing his opinion on people’s take that Nigeria’s politics is in a state of decadence paralysis as corruption has eaten deep into the system, Rhode-Vivour said; “I agree hundred percent but is not just the fault of the politicians it is the fault of the people as well because if you take politics seriously you get the leaders you deserve if you don’t take politics seriously you will get the leaders you deserve.

“They will sit down on the day of election to watch football or watch movies and then they will leave the election for people that are looking for five hundred, one thousand or two thousand naira.

“That person that spent all that money on election has bought his way into power why is he going to respect you, why is he going to take your matter seriously When you have sold your birthright you have sold your power. But if that person got there because is only the people that put him there he will work for the people because is the people that put him there because if he goes there and messed up they will remove him. That’s why we need to take charge, we need to take responsibility and participate fully in our politics

 

 

 

“There are people that are in politics and they know that the only reason why people elected them is because they have money they have thugs, the reason why he won his primary is because he spent millions of dollars

He knows when that man enters power his heart will be the heart of a king not the heart of a servant or leader

” A lot of people that got into power at my age refused to leave the power, they want to hold on to it and die with it.

“All of them that we talk about today have been on the power journey from their early thirties, mid thirties and early forties.” He said,

When asked to advise people who are in the habit of selling their votes Rhodes-vivour posited that; “If you sell your vote and get bad government as a result, bad policy will find you right in to your bank account”. He concluded