Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the governorship candidate for the Lagos State Labour Party (LP), claims that Nigerian youths are 90% closer than they think to assuming power and making their ideal nation a reality.
At a gathering on Thursday in Ikeja with the hashtag “Youth O’ Clock,” the 40-year-old LP candidate revealed this.
He stated: “We know that the goal and what we are going through is far bigger than I and any of us.”
“It is a project that will lift the lives of millions of Lagosians up and in turn lift the lives of many Nigerians up. It is project to free Lagos from the shackle hold of tyranny.”
“A Lagos State where the inner roads will work, where our people will have quality healthcare, water, quality public education, not one where parents keep struggling trying to find how to pay school fees for their children to go to private school.”
Rhodes-Vivour predicted a very promising future and confirming it, he said: “We are already 90 per cent there. We need to bring this thing home. I want you to understand that the moment we take Lagos, this fire of a new type of politics will engulf Nigeria.”
“You start to find politicians that mean well for the people, that can articulate their vision and positive about change.”
“No more status quo, we are changing the narrative to have a new Lagos and a new Nigeria. We will set a new standard,” Rhodes-Vivour concluded.
He praised Nigerian youths for supporting Mr. Peter Obi, the LP’s presidential candidate, and Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed, the candidate’s running mate, in the Feb. 25 presidential election and claimed that Obi and the LP were all about empathy and compassion for the suffering of the people.
Rhodes-Vivour claimed he was upset by INEC’s inability to send polling unit results electronically on February 25 as promised, stating that LP votes were stolen in their thousands. Nonetheless, he expressed optimism that Obi and Baba-Ahmed will recover their alleged mandate.
At the elections on February 25, he claimed that young people came out, stood their ground, and demonstrated that they had the power to both elect and remove voters, “That was the powerful thing to see in Nigeria because we have not seen it in so long.”
In the upcoming elections, the candidate predicted that young people would fight back against harassment and intimidation in ways that had never been seen before.
“They (old politicians) do not understand the energy that is doing this thing. This is energy that you cannot buy, this is energy spur by hope, belief and love,” he added.
He said the party was putting plans in place for strong voter security and asked the youth to take the lead in the upcoming March 18 governorship and house of assembly elections.
“The first time I saw the energy in the youth was on Oct. 1, when we had that rally, and I saw human beings mobilising without be mobilised.”
“I knew that there is something that has changed. The people have finally woken up and decided that it is their time and we have showed them,” he said.
stating once more that all of the propaganda against him was absurd and unfounded, and added that INEC’s decision to delay the election will widen the margin of victory for the LP over the opposition parties.
Pastor Dayo Ekong, the LP Chairman for Lagos State, also spoke and praised the youth for demonstrating their strength during the Lagos and Nigerian presidential and national assembly elections.
Ekong claimed that by remaining resolute in the face of intimidation and abuse without giving up, Nigerian youth had demonstrated their capacity.
“We started this race, we are too close to the end of the race,” she asserts, claiming that the goal of the LP movement is to free Nigeria from the grip of oppression.
The chairwoman bemoaned the numerous threats and smear campaigns that were launched against the LP candidate prior to the election.
She reiterated: “We are not giving up. We started this journey, and we will be successful and victorious come March 18,no matter what.”
“I have been threatened but I believe in this cause because this is the right cause.”
“This is the time for change. This is the time for us all to come together and rescue Lagos and it is definitely happening come March 18.”
“Nothing is stopping us. No fear, no panic, no oppression and no frustration. Whether there is money or not, God will see us through.”
“So, be strong. Continue to be resilient and focused because we are taking over and the new dawn in Nigeria will emerge,” she concluded.
