The Lagos Election Was a Referendum on Identity, Not Policy

By any measure, the 2023 Lagos State governorship election was far more than a contest of policies or party platforms. It became, unmistakably, a referendum on identity. Few candidates in Nigeria’s recent political history have been scrutinised so intensely—or caricatured so deliberately—as Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV).
What unfolded was not merely political opposition, but a sustained effort to define, question, and weaponise who he was: his name, his ancestry, his faith, and his perceived “belonging.” The campaign against GRV exposed deeper anxieties within Lagos politics—an undercurrent of fear about power, ownership, and the evolving identity of a city that has always been more complex than its gatekeepers admit.