By Promise Eze
The governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has waded into the tribalistic discourse over the status of indigenes in the state.
Rhodes-Vivour made this clarification on Thursday during an interview on AriseTV.
Ahead of the polls on Saturday, the populace has been divided across tribal lines with a section stating that Lagos is a no man’s land due to its cosmopolitan nature.
This situation has seen insults being traded across party and tribal lines which elicited a response from the LP candidate.
According to Rhodes-Vivour, it is disrespectful to call Lagos a no man’s land. He also revealed the original indigenes who built the city from its early days which aided in its expansion.
He said some groups of people built Lagos to become what it is today, adding that the welcoming nature of the state was built by the Aworis, the Ogus and other groups.
“I’ve said it several times even on his show, the idea that someone would say Lagos is a no man’s land is appalling to me. There are people that built the idea, the culture of what Lagos is. The welcoming nature of the Aworis, the Ogus, even before the Oba of Benin sent the current royal family to Lagos, it was already a trading post, he said.
“The Tapa, the Nupe people were already here, they were mixing and there was a culture, and that culture is a welcoming one, a live and let live one. And that was one of the reasons why Nnamdi Azikiwe would have one of his allies in Adeniji Adele, you cannot question the pedigree of Adeniji Adele in Lagos state”, he added.
This is not the first time the governorship candidate would caution against the narrative. In a recent interview, he said, “You cannot say Lagos is a no man’s land because my great-great-grandfather lived there and built Lagos”.
