By FRANCIS OBIDIGWE
They never saw Peter Obi coming and they never saw Labour Party LP knocking at their door. The new undisputed champion of Lagos State is now Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour. Without making any noise, without jumping up and down or causing commotion Gbadebo led the charge to conquer Lagos for Peter Obi’s and the OBIdients’ vision and crusade for the new Nigeria of our dreams.
In the wake of what is the greatest political upset in our democratic history so far there has been a move for alignment between LP and PDP to form a united front to finally take Lagos from APC. Unfortunately this unification of purpose has already failed due to the arrogance of unreasoning and highly arrogant PDP elements in Lagos State who bluntly refused to imbibe sense and face reality on ground.
Many of us did not even like this idea of any working arrangement with PDP. It is PDP that drove Peter Obi from their party due to the wickedness and greediness of their leaders who are part and parcel of those that have destroyed this country all through the years. If only PDP had zoned the presidency to South East and given Obi the ticket as the popular choice of all Nigerians, we would have totally finished APC by now in this country from top to bottom.
For the avoidance of doubt, let it be known to all that the political dynamic in Lagos has completely changed forever. The contest is no longer between APC and PDP like in the past. It is now between APC and Labour Party. In fact PDP has now been left far far far behind. If the bitter truth of the matter is to be told it is now a completely dead and buried political party.
Of a truth PDP’s Olajide Adediran popularly called “Jandor” by his few remaining handful of scattered, dejected and thoroughly disappointed supporters made a very big mistake by sidelining Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and picking a complete nonentity like Funke Akindele that is bringing absolutely nothing of real political value to the table. In any case Gbadebo was always ahead of Jandor in PDP before Jandor somehow stole the nomination from him in highly underhanded manner.
It is certainly not Gbadebo and Labour Party that need Jandor and PDP to win. Gbadebo and LP can go it alone and dislodge APC easily on his own. His mother is Ibo, his wife is also Ibo and the people listen to him. It is rather Jandor and PDP that desperately need Gbadebo if they want to have any hope to remain relevant in the next dispensation.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour is the hero of the day and the man of the moment. He humbled M C Oluomo and put him in his proper place, something Jandor and the entire PDP have not been able to do in donkey years. Jandor should learn to show more respect and has no choice now with Gbadebo as the new defacto head of the opposition in Lagos State.
Truth is bitter but it must be told. Gbadebo is far better educated than Jandor. Apart from that, he comes from a far more prestigious background than Jandor can ever boast of despite always moving around with arrogance as if he is the one feeding everybody.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour knows who is who in Lagos because he is part of the who is who in Lagos high society so he has all the connections to take Lagos away from APC because Gbadebo has a name the people immediately associate with power and prestige and panache and connections as the son of a family of great lawyers and jurists including a former Supreme Court Justice. In short he is wired to everywhere.
Gbadebo’s father is a very very senior lawyer, his grandfather was a judge, his great-grandfather was the second indigenous judge in the whole of Nigeria. The name “Rhodes-Vivour” pulls great weight whereas the name “Jandor” is just another street name of alaye.
In any case Jandor does not have the capacity to govern a complex state like Lagos that is a microcosm of Nigeria as a whole. Even his former boss and political godfather former Governor Tunde Raji Fashola has said so when he said to the whole world that Jandor’s past experience as his cameraman inside Government House in Alausa does not qualify him to be the governor of Lagos State.
If Jandor was to somehow become a governor, he would be the least exposed, the least experienced, the least qualified, the least articulate and the least packaged governor in the history of Lagos. He has never really worked in any notable capacity whether in private or public sector and has no CV that contains anything that can be verified to show that this man has real potential.
Jandor is just a cameraman who suddenly made a huge amount of money through means that he has not fully disclosed that now wants to pounce on the Lagos State treasury. The bottom line is that Jandor totally lacks the capacity to govern Lagos and it will be a complete disaster to entrust Lagos to such individual.
On the other hand, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour has proved himself where Jandor failed miserably. Everybody knows who he is and exactly where he is coming from. He is a towering architect, an autocrat to his core, a great grassroots activist and a true man of the people. There is no way to compare him to Jandor because they have nothing in common between them.
It is therefore time for Jandor to humble himself step down from his high horse and step down for his oga, Gbadebo. There is no shame in it. You are just facing the reality of your present predicament. Tomorrow is another day. Let us not deceive ourselves. The governorship election is no longer between Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu and Jandor. The governorship election is now clearly between Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu and Arch. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour the man of the moment the man of our time.
Jandor must face reality and immediately collapse the entire PDP structure into Labour Party this few days left before election. He should stop deceiving himself he has hope of going anywhere and place the PDP and himself under the incomparable and result orientated leadership of Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of LP.
If he refused to comply with this candid advice from those like us who are the ones that are truly on ground, the entire PDP should immediately abandon him and his girlfriend alone in PDP and decamp into Labour Party.
Obidigwe, a trader and public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos Island.