The Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) governorship candidate in Oyo State, Bimbo Adekanmbi, has challenged Senator Sharafadeen Alli of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to present fresh ideas capable of transforming the state, saying political experience alone does not amount to a vision for development.
Adekanmbi, through the Oyo State APM Campaign Council, said Alli’s Oyo AHEAD manifesto lacked originality and largely repeated policies and programmes already being implemented by the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde.
The campaign council, in a statement signed by its Co-Director, Media and Publicity, Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, said the debate should focus on the quality and originality of Alli’s proposals rather than the political offices he had occupied.
‘Public office is not an achievement in itself. It is an opportunity to make achievements,’ the statement said.
It acknowledged Alli’s previous positions as local government chairman, Secretary to the State Government and senator but argued that his political experience had not translated into a clearly defined development agenda for Oyo State.
The council questioned why the APC candidate’s manifesto, despite his years in public service, appeared to rely on familiar promises of more roads, teachers, hospitals, healthcare centres and welfare programmes.
‘If he has lived governance for decades, why does his manifesto struggle to produce a single transformative idea that the people of Oyo State have not heard before?’ it asked.
The APM campaign council also accused the APC of contradicting itself by criticising the Makinde administration’s healthcare delivery while proposing the establishment of primary healthcare centres in every ward, which it said was already part of the current government’s policy direction.
‘It condemns the government’s developmental philosophy while borrowing heavily from it. It attacks the government’s record while marketing many of the government’s priorities,’ the statement said.
It further questioned why the APC would present a manifesto that allegedly mirrors the policies of an administration it had repeatedly described as unsuccessful.
‘The people of Oyo State are politically sophisticated enough to ask a simple question: If Governor Seyi Makinde’s government is a failure, why does the APC manifesto look so much like its roadmap?’ it added.
The council also cited Oyo State’s recognition by Phillips Consulting as Nigeria’s most liveable state and its ranking in the 2025 Democracy Performance Index, released by Kimpact Development Initiative and published by StatiSense, as evidence of the state’s performance under the present administration.
It argued that the APC had yet to demonstrate why residents should abandon the current development trajectory for what it described as recycled promises.
‘The debate is whether the APC has presented a genuinely superior and original alternative. Days after unveiling Oyo AHEAD, the answer remains elusive,’ the statement said.
It added: ‘Credentials are not a vision. Statistics are not a strategy. And experience, however extensive, does not automatically translate into innovation.’
The APM campaign council maintained that residents deserved a more compelling development agenda than what it described as a repetition of existing government policies.
It said Adekanmbi represented a credible alternative for sustaining progress, strengthening governance and building on the achievements recorded in the state.