The governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) in Oyo State, Honourable Bimbo Adekanmbi, has challenged his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, over what he described as the recycling of policies already being implemented by Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration.
Adekanmbi, through the Co-Director of Media and Publicity of the Oyo State APM Campaign Council, Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, questioned why Alli would condemn the Makinde administration while adopting some of its major policies in his Oyo AHEAD manifesto.
Olanrewaju, in a statement responding to the Senator Sharafadeen Alli Campaign Organisation (SSACO), said the APC candidate had failed to demonstrate how his manifesto offered a better alternative to the existing government.
He argued that several proposals in the Oyo AHEAD document, particularly in healthcare, education, agriculture, infrastructure and workers’ welfare, were already priorities of the Makinde administration.
Citing the proposed establishment of a Primary Healthcare Centre in every ward, the APM spokesman said the initiative was already being pursued by the state government through its one-PHC-per-ward programme.
He consequently challenged Alli to explain why he was presenting the policy as a major innovation while his campaign organisation continued to portray the government implementing it as a failure.
“If that policy is evidence of failure, why adopt it? If it is evidence of success, why present it as a breakthrough idea?” he queried.
Olanrewaju maintained that the APC was free to argue that it could implement existing policies more effectively but should not present them as original ideas or groundbreaking initiatives.
He further argued that the opposition’s criticism of Makinde’s administration was difficult to reconcile with independent assessments that had reportedly ranked Oyo State as Nigeria’s most liveable state and highest-performing state in democratic governance.
According to him, the rankings considered indicators such as infrastructure, healthcare, education, security, economic opportunities, institutional effectiveness and citizen participation.
He said the state’s recognition was evidence of the progress made under the current administration, adding that the APC could not convincingly describe Oyo as a failed state while simultaneously borrowing from its policy direction.
The APM spokesman also challenged SSACO to identify any transformative idea or signature reform in Alli’s manifesto that was uniquely associated with the APC candidate and capable of taking the state beyond its current achievements.
He questioned why the electorate should replace an administration whose record had earned national recognition with a manifesto built largely around familiar promises and policies already being implemented.
Olanrewaju, however, expressed confidence that the people of Oyo State would sustain the achievements of the Makinde administration by electing Adekanmbi as the next governor.
He added that the APC candidate had yet to convince the electorate that his manifesto offered anything substantially better, insisting that the recycling of existing policies could not constitute a convincing alternative to the present administration.
