Rhodes-Vivour Gbadebo Patrick

Chief Gbadebo Patrick Rhodes-Vivour, also known as G.R.V., is a Nigerian architect, entrepreneur, and politician born on 8 March 1983. He was the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party for Lagos State in the 2023 gubernatorial election, finishing runner-up and losing to incumbent governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Rhodes-Vivour was the senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Lagos West senatorial district in the 2019 Senate elections. He was installed as the Obalefun of Lagos, a Yoruba chief, in April 2025.

Born on Lagos Island, he grew up in Ikeja, both in Lagos State. He attended Chrisland Schools up to JSS3 and proceeded to Paris to complete his secondary education at École Active Bilingue. He holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Nottingham and a master's degree in the same field from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

After his first master's degree, he completed the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2009. He later attained a second master's degree in Research and Public Policy from the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Rhodes-Vivour is from a prominent Nigerian family; his uncle was a former justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Bode Rhodes-Vivour, and his grandfather was the late Judge Akinwunmi Rhodes-Vivour.

He is also the great-grandnephew of Steven Bankole Rhodes, the second indigenous judge appointed in Nigeria, and his great-great-grandfather was the wealthy 19th-century planter William Vivour. Rhodes-Vivour is the convener of the civil society group Nigerians Against GMO, advocating against the proliferation of Genetically Modified Foods.

Their protests intensified in 2016 after claims by Monsanto that GMOs are safe, targeting the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, and the multinational company. In 2017, he led a 2,000-man march to the Senate to voice opposition to environmental degradation. He also campaigns for the inclusion of history as a subject in the Nigerian school curriculum.

In 2022, he collaborated with WellaHealth to provide free health checks and insurance for many Lagos residents with voter cards, commemorating World Malaria Day and encouraging voter registration. GRV worked with Franklin Ellis Architects in the UK and later with SISA, Kliff Consulting (now Building Partnership CCP), and Patrick Waheed Architects upon returning to Nigeria.

He founded Spatial Tectonics, a design firm focused on affordable unconventional construction methods. Rhodes-Vivour is a partner in Multi Development Construction Corporation (MDCC) and sits on the boards of HomeQube Ltd, E-Terra Technologies, and Alkebulan Agro-Allied. He is the chairman of The Rhodes-Vivour Foundation.

One of the first beneficiaries of the Not Too Young To Run legislation, he contested the Ikeja Local Government Area chairmanship under the KOWA party in 2017, citing the absence of godfatherism in the party as his reason. He lost to the incumbent APC candidate. In 2019, he contested for the Senate seat to represent Lagos West under the PDP, aiming to revamp infrastructure and criticize the incumbent senator’s absenteeism.

He finished second, losing to Solomon Adeola by 243,516 votes to Adeola’s 323,817 votes. Adeola received 41.38% of the votes, while Rhodes-Vivour got 39.40%. He contested the result in court, citing electoral violence and disruptions, but the court upheld the election of his opponent. He was the Labour Party’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2023 Lagos State gubernatorial election, losing to Babajide Sanwo-Olu. He initially considered a PDP nomination but defected to the Labour Party, securing 111 votes in the substitute election against Moshood Salvador’s 102 votes.