The Senator Sharafadeen Alli Campaign Organisation (SSACO) has challenged Governor Seyi Makinde and the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) governorship candidate, Hon. Bimbo Adekanmbi, to address what it described as critical governance failures in Oyo State, including local government paralysis, shortages of healthcare workers and the rising number of out-of-school children.
The organisation accused Makinde and Adekanmbi of diverting attention from these issues by alleging that Senator Sharafadeen Alli copied policies of the Makinde administration in his manifesto, tagged Oyo AHEAD.
In a statement signed by its Director of Media and Publicity, Bisi Oladele, SSACO described the allegation as an attempt to evade scrutiny, insisting that Alli’s manifesto offered practical solutions to challenges in education, healthcare, agriculture, grassroots development and youth empowerment.
The campaign organisation said Alli’s experience in public service distinguished him from other contenders, noting that he had served as a council chairman, Secretary to the State Government, Chief of Staff and currently as a senator.
“Alli is not a newcomer learning governance from press releases. He was a Council Chairman, Secretary to the State Government, Chief of Staff and is now a serving Senator. That experience from the ward to the Senate is what positions him as the best for Oyo State. You cannot copy what you have lived,” the statement said.
SSACO maintained that Makinde and Adekanmbi had failed to address concerns raised in Alli’s manifesto, particularly the alleged inactivity of local governments, inadequate staffing of primary healthcare centres and state hospitals, poorly funded schools and the reported number of children out of school.
On local government administration, the organisation claimed that the 33 councils in the state had received approximately N873 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) since 2019, yet their budgets were not publicly accessible online.
It said Alli would issue an executive order on his first day in office to guarantee local government autonomy, ensure payment of allocations on a fixed date and facilitate the monthly remittance of the 10 per cent of state revenue due to councils.
On healthcare, SSACO alleged that six local government areas had no general hospital, while six general hospitals had no doctor as of last October. It added that 10 other hospitals had only one doctor each, while primary healthcare centres operated with an average of three workers against a national standard of 24.
The organisation said Alli’s proposed Oyo Care initiative would guarantee free healthcare for infants, pregnant women and residents aged 70 and above.
It added that the programme would provide for continuous recruitment of healthcare workers, modern hospital facilities, essential medicines, solar power for rural maternity centres and public accountability dashboards across wards.
On education, SSACO cited figures from the state’s school census, claiming that public primary school classrooms accommodated an average of 100 pupils, while approximately 674,000 children aged three to 17 were out of school, reportedly the highest figure in the South-West.
It also claimed that seven out of every 10 children aged seven to 14 in the state could not perform basic arithmetic.
According to the organisation, Alli’s Oyo AHEAD manifesto proposes reducing classroom populations to 30 pupils, rehabilitating schools across the 33 local government areas, introducing scholarships for gifted children from poor backgrounds and enacting an Apprenticeship Law.
The manifesto, it added, also proposes the restoration of School Governing Boards to parents and communities, an agricultural revolution, a N10 billion Youth Fund, affordable housing for low- and middle-income earners and a 20-year warranty on newly constructed roads.
Reacting to claims that Oyo State had been ranked Nigeria’s most liveable state, SSACO challenged the Makinde administration to produce the report, its publisher and the methodology used in arriving at the ranking.
“They claim Oyo is the most liveable state but cannot produce the report, the publisher or the methodology. They claim Alli copied one-PHC-per-ward, yet our PHCs have three workers instead of 24. That is not implementation. That is abandonment,” the statement said.
The organisation described Adekanmbi’s political platform as a continuation of the Makinde administration, arguing that Oyo State needed a departure from what it called centralised governance and the treatment of government as a private business.
“Adekanmbi is not change. He is continuity of failure, continuity of centralisation, continuity of government-as-business. Oyo AHEAD is a correction. It is a covenant. And we will continue to highlight the issues that matter to the well-being of the people of Oyo State,” SSACO added.
