“Glad Lagos does not have you as the Governor”, Man Yabs Rhodes-Vivour

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party Governorship candidate for the 2023 elections in Lagos State is being criticised for having no indepth idea on the newly launched Lagos Red Line project for train services.

Reacting to launch, Rhodes-Vivour popularly referred to as GRV said despite his reluctance to speak on the matter; “unfortunately, the APC has turned what was supposed to be a people-centric project into political propaganda laced with misinformation and false narratives” he claimed hence the need to set the record straight.

How Lagos State Standard Gauge Railway Was Built in the 1890s – GRV

GRV then went historical to buttress his argument saying:

The fact is that the Lagos part of the standard gauge railway was first laid 125 years ago in 1898 from Lagos to Abeokuta before being extended to Kano. It remained a narrow gauge line from Iddo or Apapa to Agbado/Ijoko to Abeokuta for over a hundred years until the Jonathan Goodluck government in 2012 signed a contract with the Chinese to upgrade it to a standard gauge railway from Lagos to Ibadan.

By 2013, there were already trains between Iddo/Apapa to Agbado/Ijoko with new coaches. Thereafter the Lagos state government approached the Federal government to use the federal line and instead of buying new railcars with guarantees, they bought two railcars that had been abandoned for 11yrs in Wisconsin State, USA for an undisclosed amount (of course, you know what that means).

Also worth mentioning is that despite the series of false claims by the Lagos state government, the signal office, for instance, will be staffed and paid by the federal government. They claim that they laid 5km of rail to connect the Federal government line to Marina when in fact it is part of the Blue line from National Theatre/Ijora to Marina metro line, whereby passengers will switch lines where they intersect, and not a continuation of the standard gauge line as falsely portrayed.

Everything from lines to stations to signals and bridges or tunnels had been costed and paid for by the Jonathan Goodluck administration since 2013. Hence, the most significant contribution of the Lagos state government to this project is the purchase of 11-year-old abandoned railcars at undisclosed fees. To be fair also, they put in quite some work in project supervision and collaboration with the federal government. For this, they deserve some commendation.

Most importantly, citizens must realize that while it is important to acknowledge and even applaud transformational policy initiatives by the government, they must never forget that the government and the initiatives are funded by their taxes and commonwealth. They were elected to serve you and never to lord over you.

youtu.be/DjAk7wnLd94?si…

Counter Claims and Arguments From the Lagos State Official

Clarity on the arguments was however buttressed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on New Media, Jubril Gawat who responded to GRV’s post saying:

“Everything from lines to stations to signals and bridges or tunnels had been costed and paid for by the Jonathan Goodluck administration since 2013”

Man doesn’t know the difference between FG Stations (named after people) and Red Line Stations (named after the areas)

Netizens Reactions to GRV

One Yinka Oladejo reacted saying:

Glad Lagos does not have you as the governor.

You just wrote all this epistle for wetin.

Another, Delani said:

You’re setting the record straight on what you don’t have knowledge about. No be juju be that?

Ayo Akande who claims to be living in the United States reacted:

This is shameless. I don’t know about all of your story but the part about it being purchased in Wisconsin 11 years ago is the lie of the century. I live in Florida and saw it on a news broadcast when Sanwo olu came to purchase the trains 2 years ago. There are videos of it. The trains were built for Wisconsin but the republican governor at the time scrapped the project due to internal politics. You are a joke and Lagos really dodged a bullet by rejecting you.