APM Slams Alli’s Oyo AHEAD Manifesto, Says APC Candidate Offers Recycled Promises, Lacks Fresh Ideas

Considering the fanfare that accompanied the unveiling of the manifesto of Senator Sharafadeen Alli, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, one would have expected the Oyo AHEAD document to offer fresh ideas and innovative solutions to the state’s challenges. Instead, what emerged is a manifesto remarkably short on originality and long on recycled promises.

For all its projections and ambitious commitments, the document struggles to identify a single transformative idea that can be uniquely associated with Sharafadeen Alli or the APC. Rather than presenting a distinct vision for Oyo State, much of what it offers appears to be a repackaging of policies already being pursued by the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde, alongside familiar promises that have featured in countless political campaigns over the years.

Take healthcare, for example. One of the manifesto’s headline promises is the establishment of a fully equipped primary healthcare centre in each of Oyo State’s 351 wards. This is precisely where the originality problem becomes apparent.

The current administration has, for years, pursued a one-PHC-per-ward policy, rehabilitating and upgrading primary healthcare centres across the state. If the same objective is now being presented as a flagship campaign promise, the obvious question is: where is the innovation?

If a candidate’s major healthcare proposal mirrors an existing government policy, voters are entitled to ask what exactly he intends to do differently.
The same pattern is evident across other sectors. More teachers. Better hospitals. Prompt salary payments. Pension reforms. Economic development.

These are worthwhile aspirations, but they are hardly groundbreaking ideas. They are standard features of virtually every gubernatorial manifesto in Nigeria.
More importantly, many of these initiatives are already receiving attention under the current administration. This raises another important question: why should the people of Oyo State abandon a government already implementing these policies in favour of a candidate promising largely the same things, but without presenting a superior vision or a more innovative approach?

A serious manifesto should answer two fundamental questions. First, what is wrong with the current system? Second, what new approach will be introduced to solve the identified problems?
The Oyo AHEAD document spends considerable time addressing the first question, but offers very little that is new in response to the second.
Where is the disruptive idea that reimagines healthcare delivery?

Where is the governance innovation that fundamentally transforms service delivery?
Where is the economic strategy that clearly distinguishes itself from conventional state-led development?

Where is the signature reform that would define an APC administration in Oyo State?
There is no game-changing healthcare financing model. There is no bold institutional reform. There is no radical agenda for civil service modernisation. There is no technology-driven governance framework capable of transforming public service delivery. There is no distinctive policy innovation that fundamentally shifts the development conversation.

Instead, what emerges is a manifesto built largely around expansion rather than transformation: more facilities, more recruitment, more spending, more programmes and more government.
But development is not simply about doing more of the same things. It is about discovering better ways of doing them.

That is why the most significant weakness of the manifesto is conceptual. The document struggles to explain why Oyo State requires a change of government when many of its flagship proposals either replicate existing programmes or recycle long-standing political talking points.

Any manifesto seeking to replace an incumbent administration carries a higher burden than merely compiling a list of promises. It must demonstrate fresh thinking. It must present a vision that is recognisably different from what already exists. It must show not only a desire to govern, but a unique understanding of how governance can be improved.

On that score, the Oyo AHEAD manifesto falls flat.
If all a candidate has to offer is a rehash of existing ideas dressed up in new slogans, then voters are justified in questioning the need for such a change. A manifesto should inspire confidence in the future. This one largely revisits ideas that are already familiar to the people of Oyo State.

In the end, the document is rich in rhetoric but poor in innovation, heavy on promises but light on original thinking. And for a candidate seeking to lead one of Nigeria’s most important states, that is a serious cause for concern.