It is difficult to persuade people that they are living in a failed state when independent assessments have ranked Oyo as Nigeria’s most liveable state and its best-performing democracy. It is even more difficult to sustain that argument when the manifesto being marketed as the solution borrows heavily from the policies of the government it seeks to replace. Oyo State recently emerged as Nigeria’s most liveable state and highest-performing state in democratic governance based on indicators such as infrastructure, healthcare, education, security, economic opportunity, institutional effectiveness and citizen participation.
That contradiction lies at the heart of the response by Senator Sharafadeen Alli to our critique of its manifesto.
Rather than explain how Sharafadeen Alli intends to move Oyo State beyond its current achievements, his campaign organisation (SSACO) chose to construct a narrative of failure. Yet the facts tell a different story. Oyo did not become Nigeria’s most liveable state and strongest democratic performer by accident. Those rankings were based on indisputable outcomes in governance, public services, infrastructure and quality of life.
This raises a simple question: if Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration has failed as SSACO claims, how did Oyo emerge as the benchmark for democratic governance and liveability in Nigeria?
More importantly, SSACO’s response avoids the central issue. The criticism of the Oyo AHEAD manifesto was never that healthcare, education, agriculture and economic development are unimportant. Every serious government pursues those goals. The criticism was that the manifesto offers little that is genuinely original.
On that point, the response is tellingly silent.
Indeed, it reinforces the criticism.
The organisation condemns Governor Makinde’s healthcare record, yet one of the headline promises in Oyo AHEAD is a Primary Healthcare Centre in every ward, a policy already being pursued through the state’s one-PHC-per-ward initiative.
If that policy is evidence of failure, why adopt it?
If it is evidence of success, why present it as a breakthrough idea?
In academics, when a scholar builds on another person’s work, proper credit is given. By the same logic, if Senator Alli is campaigning on policies already being implemented by Governor Makinde, he should at least acknowledge their origin rather than present them as fresh innovations.
The same contradiction runs throughout the manifesto. Better healthcare. Better education. Better roads. Economic growth. Agricultural development. Workers’ welfare. These are worthy goals, but they are neither new nor uniquely associated with Sharafadeen Alli. More importantly, they are priorities already receiving significant attention under the current administration.
The APC is free to argue that it can implement these policies more effectively. What it cannot credibly do is market them as original.
And that is where Oyo AHEAD continues to struggle.
Not once in SSACO’s response did it identify a transformative idea uniquely associated with Senator Alli. Not once did it articulate a signature reform capable of redefining governance in Oyo State. Not once did it explain why voters should replace a government whose record has earned national recognition with a manifesto that largely recycles existing priorities.
The unanswered question therefore remains: If Oyo State under Governor Makinde is already leading Nigeria in liveability and democratic governance, and if many of the flagship proposals in Oyo AHEAD mirror policies already being implemented, what exactly is the change that Senator Alli is offering?
That is the question SSACO could not answer.
Hence, the people of Oyo State remain resolute in their determination to sustain the good governance they have experienced under Governor Makinde by electing Honourable Bimbo Adekanmbi of the Allied Peoples’ Movement as the next governor of the state.
For all its talk of rescue and redemption, SSACO is yet to identify a single transformative idea capable of moving Oyo State beyond its current trajectory. Instead, it asks the people to abandon a government that has earned national recognition in favour of a manifesto built largely on familiar promises and recycled priorities.
A government may be criticised. Its record may be debated. Its decisions may be questioned. That is democracy. But any opposition seeking to replace it must meet a higher standard. It must demonstrate that it has something better to offer.
So far, Oyo AHEAD has fallen short in this regard. It is therefore no surprise that its proponent has failed to win the trust of the people of Oyo State and is now clutching at straws in a bid to stay politically afloat.
