Lagos APC Spokesman, Seye Oladejo, responds to Abimbola Adelakun on Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s Yoruba question
There are some political problems that can be explained away, some that can be repackaged and some that can be temporarily buried under mountains of public relations. But there are also some that refuse to disappear simply because we wish them away.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s Yoruba problem belongs in the latter category.
Abimbola Adelakun’s intervention may have provided an interesting intellectual defence of the ADC 2027 Lagos governorship candidate, but it does not answer the fundamental questions raised by Rhodes-Vivour’s own public admission that he had engaged a Yoruba teacher and was learning the language.
And let us be clear: there is nothing wrong with learning Yoruba. Indeed, it is commendable.
The question is why a man who aspires to govern Lagos only came to the realisation, during his political journey, that developing a deeper connection with the language and culture of a substantial section of the people he seeks to govern was important.
This is not about demanding Yoruba proficiency as a constitutional qualification for the governorship of Lagos.
It is not.
Lagos is a cosmopolitan state and its diversity is one of its greatest assets. Nobody should be denied public office merely because he does not speak Yoruba fluently.
