The Oyo APM Campaign Council has described the manifesto unveiled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, as lacking originality and revealing a vision deficit.
In a statement signed by its Co-Director (Media and Publicity), Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju, on Monday, the council said considering the fanfare that accompanied the unveiling, one would have expected the Oyo AHEAD document to offer fresh ideas and innovative solutions.
Instead, according to the statement, what emerged is a document “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,” Olanrewaju said.
The APM Campaign Council cited healthcare as an example, noting that Alli’s promise of a fully equipped primary healthcare centre in each of the 351 wards mirrors the one-PHC-per-ward policy already being pursued by the current administration.
“If the same objective is now being presented as a flagship campaign promise, the obvious question is: where is the innovation?” the statement queried.
The Council said the same pattern is evident across other sectors including promises of more teachers, better hospitals, prompt salary payments, pension reforms and economic development, which it described as standard features of virtually every gubernatorial manifesto and initiatives already receiving attention under the Makinde administration.
“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,” it said.
The statement further questioned the absence of disruptive ideas, governance innovation, distinctive economic strategy, game-changing healthcare financing model, bold institutional reform and technology-driven governance framework in the manifesto.
“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,” the Council said.
It argued that any manifesto seeking to replace an incumbent administration must demonstrate fresh thinking and a vision recognisably different from what already exists.
“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,” the statement added.
The APM Campaign Council concluded that the document is “rich in rhetoric but poor in innovation, heavy on promises but light on original thinking.”
