KITOYE BRANCO-RHODES: “HOW MY LATE DAD, YINKA RHODES, SHAPED MY LIFE”, JOINS LAGOS GUBER RACE

In the late ‘70s and the ‘80s, his dad’s name, Yinka Rhodes, was a big name within the Lagos social circle. He was one of the celebrities who rocked the social scene. So popular was Chief Yinka Rhodes then that Chief Ebenezer Obey who was one of the reigning musicians at that time, as he is still, praise-sang him in his popular evergreen album, Board Members. Reason? Chief Yinka Rhodes was a member of that popular socially- active group called Board Members. But he wasn’t only about social alone, Chief Yinka Rhodes was also a frontline lawyer and a big businessman who owned so many companies. He was also a politician and a friend to many bigtime politicians of his generation.

Chief Yinka Rhodes is the father of Kitoye Branco-Rhodes who has also taken after him in business and politics. Kitoye wants to be the next Governor of Lagos. He wants to fly the governorship flag of Lagos PDP. Right now, he is one of the governorship aspirants in Lagos on the platform of the PDP and unknown to many, Kitoye’s love for politics was greatly influenced by the life of his late father and father in-law, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, both of whom are politicians. Braithwaite, it will be recalled, once floated a political party NAP. Kitoye, unknown to many, has been in active politics for close to 20 years since the days of Grassroot Democratic Movement (GDM) when late Abacha was still in power.
He was also a member of Nigerian Democratic which was led by Dr. Braithwaite and then it evolved into NAP.

And it was on the NAP platform that he contested his 1st gubernatorial elections in 2003. Why has Kitoye who has always had a revolutionary bend decide to realise it in PDP? “It is simple, “he says. “We have over the years watched how our objectives of trying to change the process from outside and then thought that we should work with others. I am a team player. I think when we have a cross- fertilisation of ideas, may be we can be more effective within the political structure than from the outside. “We examined the APC and realised that the platform is very narrow. We realised that the PDP allows competition, contention for issues thrown up. We believe on the PDP platform, we can find express in helping to build and refocus the party in Lagos and galvanising people to take a 2nd look at the party in Lagos and hopefully being able to realise our ambition to free Lagos for good”.

What are the policies he is propagating as an aspirant? “To free Lagosians from the taxation and levies in Lagos”, he says. “To help everybody get rid of the yoke placed on them by the APC government in Lagos. It is this cry that has brought us into the PDP to help set Lagosians free. So we are on a deliverance mission. Our school of thought is ideologically-driven governance and our leadership pattern is transformational leadership. We have chosen this specifically for Lagos because Lagos development has begun, but the good governance has to necessarily translate into transformation lifestyle of the people. That is what the crux of our government is going to be”.

When did he join the PDP? “I joined the PDP over 3 months ago but we have always taken a closer look at the PDP because of the opportunities it affords many Nigerians”.  What is his pedigree like? Kitoye Branco-Rhodes is from the very popular Branco, Rhodes and Dasilva families of Lagos Island. “My great grandfather was late JFD Branco. He was one of the wealthiest men in Lagos in the 19th century and in the 1800’s, he was the 1st man to be buried at Ikoyi Cemetery which was then called Ogba Branco. I am an entrepreneur, an energy expert; I have a business with strong emphasis on renewable energy and mass housing interest. “I was born in Lagos at Island Maternity Hospital in 1963. I schooled in Maryland Convent Primary School in Maryland. I went to Baptist Academy, Ikorodu Road, Shepherdhill.
“I left there for University in America College in Switzerland. I studied Economics and finished in the University of Rhodes Island in America. I came back to Nigeria to join the family business Rosabol, which pushed the frontiers of granite and stone in Nigeria.” “We exploited indigenous stones, one of the indigenous companies to do that. I moved on to other areas like housing, eventing, hospitality and power generation. That is what we do now and we feel that our wealth of experience over 30 years can also be brought into governance”.

A lot of people with his privileged family background don’t go into politics. How did he get fired up to go into politics? “June 12 annulment led to it. Before June 12, I was the youth wing leader of the NPN, in GRA, where we lived in 1978/79. But coming back to come and do business in Nigeria, I found a hostile economic atmosphere was largely due to the limitations governing the state. That became a political burden on me. “That burden led me and others to set up a political association called Association For Selfless Service. That association metamorphosed into what became known as the GDM. So I have always been engaged in the political process, seeking the best way to galvanise our people”. He has been closely linked with Dr. Tunji Braithwaite. How did that relationship start? What influence does he have on him? “He is my father in-law”, he explains. “He has helped to shape my political ideology. I have been in politics before I even met him. In 1979, my politics was with the conservatives, the NPN. But I realise that in Nigeria there was nothing to conserve. Nigeria needs to be built. At that point Dr. Braithwaite’s political philosophy and ideology now caught my attention because it had a revolutionary bend. Having been schooled in his ideology, I believe we can engage on a larger platform, to bring about that political ideology. So it is not just going to be in theory, but in practical science.

“This is how we moved into the PDP which is not a totally conservative party, but an evolving party. It means there is room for emergence of a new ideology. We can then collaborate for collective good. We see the amenability of the PDP as an asset to accomplish the dividends of democracy on a larger scale”. Can you tell us about your late dad, Yinka Rhodes? “He was a very special dad. My dad believed that his children should be whoever they want to be. He was very liberal, loving and committed dad. He encouraged us to be whatever we thought we could be. “Whatever talent we had, he encouraged us to exploit it. My brother, Koye and I were the youngest Chief Executives in Lagos in the 1980s and we had his full backing to lead that business to as far as we could go. That was not a common trend in the 80’s. You will find at that time that most dads still wanted full control and limited their children’s scope. The responsibilities that we shouldered then made us retire quickly.

“We married quickly. I have by the grace of God, 7 children from my lovely wife and a grandchild. My dad was also a very effervescent man. He was a social butterfly. He was very people-passionate. He was a very selfless man. He loved people. He was always assisting people. He would go the extra mile to help. He was always sharing his goodness with his society. He was a very bubbly man. All his attributes rubbed off on we his children. It is that goodwill that we are enjoying today”. That is true. His dad was the popular socialite that Ebenezer Obey praisesang in his popular Board Members album. “Yes, that is true”, he says. “That was in 1971 when Chief Ebenezer Obey came out with that masterpiece. It is an evergreen album”.

How did his late father balance all his roles as a businessman, politician, and socialite? “Yes, my late dad had his style. He was a man of great class, pedigree and style. He was not a very possessive man. He was not a man that wanted to be everything or own everything. He believed in the philosophy live and let live. He was a man that believed everybody should be given a chance, no matter your strata in life. He related with the high and mighty and the low. He was opened to the young and the old. All our friends were his friends. He acquainted with all our friends as if they were contemporaries. He acquainted with people older than him, younger than him. He cut across every generation. We learnt a lot about interpersonality and interpersonal skills from him which has helped us till today”.

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About Unknown

Deji Sadiq, a.k.a DEJI OF LAGOS is a LASU trained Economist turned freelance journalist, a Blogger, an information strategist, a public affairs analyst and a committed activist with a passion for equal opportunities.