The PDP chairmen of the 20 local governments in Lagos state have endorsed Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour (GRV) as the Deputy Gubernatorial Candidate for the party in the 2023 Lagos state gubernatorial election.
The Chairmen noted that GRV who is not just an MIT trained architect but is also a public policy expert who would bring his wealth of knowledge and expertise to bear in effectively governing Lagos, especially giving several years of misgovernance by the ruling party.
This endorsement comes a day after the Lagos Island Chairmen forum of the PDP, signed a joint letter endorsing GRV as the preferred Deputy Governorship candidate of the PDP. In their endorsement of GRV, who hails from No. 38 Igbosere street in Lagos Island, the Lagos Island Chairmen Forum noted that “there is no gainsaying the political priviledge our party stand to benefit by presenting a Jandor/GRV candidacy. The candidacy will be a force to recon with by 60% of the registered voters in Lagos.”
The PDP Local Government Chairmen said in a signed letter that “as the Chairmen and Managers of our great Party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, we consider it to be well within our rights and obligations to play a major – nay, a leading – role in guiding our Party in the choice of its flagbearers for elective positions at various levels in the state as we begin the countdown to the 2023 General Elections.”
The Chairmen further noted that several electoral benefits and criteria were considered before their endorsement. Some of the criteria listed were “that the Deputy-Governorship candidate should be a young person who can also be relied upon in terms of galvanizing electoral value across the length and breadth of the state.
Also, he must be someone with an already-established electoral value and therefore needs no introduction to our teeming supporters and electorate across the state. He must be a dedicated party loyalist endowed with the qualities of empathy and utmost respect for the leaders and members, and high regard for the Party structure and its supremacy.
Finally, the prospective Deputy Governorship candidate must come to the table with an unimpeachable character, credibility and sincerity of purpose capable of gaining universal acceptance across the various divides and factions in the Party. By his very character, utterances and engagements with various stakeholders in the Party, he must be able to aggregate opinions and compel desired outcomes.”
Considering the criteria, the Chairmen stated that “we hereby endorse Architect Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (fondly known as GRV among his teeming admirers), as the absolute best option among those that have indicated their interest in becoming the Deputy-Governorship candidate of our great Party in the 2023 polls.
The Chairmen further proceeded to back their decision to endorse GRV by stating that ‘in the 2019 elections, GRV scored 37,375 votes more than that of the Governorship Candidate of our Party in that election cycle, which he recorded in 4767 out of the 8462 polling units in Lagos State.
GRV recorded the highest number of votes among all the PDP candidates in Lagos State in 2019, except for our Presidential candidate in that election cycle, former vice-president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Worth noting also is that the total number of votes scored by the PDP, APC and all other parties that participated in the 2019 Lagos East Senatorial Zone Election, were the exact sum of what Arc. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour ALONE scored in the Lagos West Senatorial Zone.
Equally important is that considering the increasing recognition for the principle of the ‘non-indigene’ factor which plays a major role in our elections, GRV also comes in for consideration, as his mother is Igbo, from Abia State, while his wife is from Anambra State – a situation that accounts for his cosmopolitan and pan-Nigerian outlook which complements his educational background, as well as his youth, personability and ability to reach across ethnic divides in no small way.”
The Chairmen pleaded with the party to avoid dissenting in their rank if they hope to defeat the APC at the polls in 2023. He also urged members of the party to rise above personal and factional interest but to work towards the overall interest and victory of the party.
