The Oyo State chapter of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) has described the governorship manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, as a collection of recycled promises lacking fresh ideas and innovative solutions to the state’s challenges.
The party said the Oyo AHEAD manifesto, despite the publicity surrounding its unveiling, failed to present a distinct vision for Oyo State, noting that many of its proposals were either already being implemented by Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration or were familiar campaign promises.
In a statement signed by the Co-Director (Media and Publicity) of the Oyo APM Campaign Council, Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, the party cited Alli’s promise to establish a fully equipped primary healthcare centre in each of the state’s 351 wards as an example of the manifesto’s lack of originality.
It argued that the Makinde administration had been pursuing a similar one-primary healthcare centre-per-ward policy through the rehabilitation and upgrading of existing facilities, questioning what new ideas the APC candidate intended to introduce.
The APM also faulted other proposals on teacher recruitment, improved hospitals, prompt salary payments, pension reforms and economic development, describing them as conventional campaign promises rather than groundbreaking policy initiatives.
According to the party, many of the initiatives highlighted in the manifesto were already receiving attention under the current administration, raising questions about why voters should replace a government implementing such policies with a candidate offering substantially similar promises.
The statement maintained that a credible manifesto should identify weaknesses in the existing system and clearly explain the new approaches a candidate intends to introduce to address them.
It challenged Alli to explain the distinctive ideas behind his healthcare delivery model, economic development strategy, civil service reforms and proposed technology-driven governance framework.
The APM further argued that the Oyo AHEAD document focused more on expanding existing programmes through additional facilities, recruitment, spending and government interventions than on introducing transformative policies.
“Development is not simply about doing more of the same things. It is about discovering better ways of doing them,” the statement said.
It added that a candidate seeking to replace an incumbent administration had a greater responsibility to demonstrate fresh thinking, present a clearly differentiated vision and explain how governance would improve under his leadership.
The party concluded that the manifesto was “rich in rhetoric but poor in innovation, heavy on promises but light in original thinking,” describing the absence of distinctive policy proposals as a major concern for a candidate seeking to govern Oyo State.
