By Balogun Kamilu Lekan
Biography
Gbadebo Patrick Rhodes Vivour was born on the 8th of March 1983 (age 39) in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Popularly known by his initials GRV or nickname “The Hopeful Nigerian”.
Gbadebo is an activist, public policy expert, businessman, architect, and politician.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour is the convener of Nigerians Against GMOs(NAG), an organization that advocates against the authorization or introduction of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) into Nigeria.
He has also been a frontrunner in advocating for the restoration of history in the school curriculum.
He delved into politics in 2007 when he contested for the Ikeja Local Government Chairmanship position under the umbrella of the KOWA party.
In 2019, he, however, clinched the party ticket to represent Lagos West senatorial district at the national assembly under the PDP.
He lost to Senator Adeola Olalekan (Yayi).
Gbadebo headed to the tribunal to challenge the result. Citing incidents of widespread violence and discrepancies in the result, he requested a rerun, which wasn’t granted.
On the 10th of August 2022, Gbadebo emerged as the Labor Party’s aspirant for the Lagos State governor’s upcoming election after decamping from the PDP.
GRV is the current Lagos State gubernatorial aspirant of the Labour Party for the 2023 election after winning the ticket at the primaries.
Education
Gbadebo attended Nottingham University, where he bagged a degree in Architecture before proceeding for his master’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.
The university awarded him a distinction for his master’s degree thesis, “Traditional revolution: formalizing the informal: a proposal for the “periphery urbanite” Lagos, Abuja & Port-Harcourt,” which focused on building a network of recycling facilities and garbage collectors in those cities to turn waste into a significant source of income and employment.
His unquenchable passion for activism and politics led him to acquire another master’s degree in research and public policy from the University of Lagos.
Career
While still studying at MIT, he collaborated with the American and Chinese governments during the reconstruction of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the Beijing Olympics, respectively.
After successfully completing his master’s degree in 2008, he returned to Nigeria for his one-year mandatory youth service.
He then proceeded to work for some of Nigeria’s top architecture firms, including Consultants Collaborative Partnership (CCP) and Patrick Waheed Consultants, before establishing his own company to address the housing crisis in Nigeria by using creative and unconventional construction techniques to build affordable housing in Nigeria.
He founded Spatial Tectonics and serves on the boards of Alhuda Construction Nigeria and Delta International Commercial City Ltd.
Wife and Children
He is married to Dr Ify Aniebo, PhD, a molecular geneticist.
Details about their children are currently not known. NewsWireNGR will update this publication as soon as it’s revealed.
Net worth
Gbadebo is a successful architect with vast experience in the field.
However, details of his estimated net worth will be included as soon as it is known.
Controversy
GBV became more obvious in the public sphere when he criticized the then Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adeshina, for his move to introduce Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) to the country.
In a detailed publication in The Guardian newspaper, Gbadebo expressed his displeasure towards this move and advised the Minister to desist from it. In the publication, he also noted that Nigeria is not prepared for GMOs and even advanced countries are placing a ban on them.
In his words, Gbadebo said, “Six of the eight countries that make up the G8 have put bans in place in relation to the commercial cultivation of GMOs, with Russia going as far as passing a law that aims to treat anyone that brings GMOs into the country as a terrorist.”
Our agricultural systems, eating habits, and cultural requirements are not the same as those of Americans, for example, and bringing these crops into our country will expose us to unimaginable health impacts. “
Also in the publication, he called on the national assembly to intervene. He said “We also call on the National Assembly to urgently investigate the process leading to the granting of the permit on Sunday, May 1, 2016, to assure Nigerians that we are not pawns in a commercial game to open Africa to toxic technologies as well as control our food systems”
The minister, however, replied Gbadebo in another publication accusing Gbadebo of mistaking biotechnology for GMO. Akinwumi said in his statement, “The author, unfortunately, confuses biotechnology with GMOs, which is done to deliberately misinform the population. He does not understand science. Noise is not fact nor science.”
To further express his displeasure towards the government move on GMOs, in June 2017, Gbadebo reportedly spearheaded a 2000-man march against the Senate in collaboration with environmentalists like Nnimmo Bassey.
Disclaimer
The information in this article was curated from online sources. All details cannot be independently verified by NewsWireNGR or its editorial team.
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