Good one. These are the kinds of interventions that make the difference between promises on paper and projects that people can physically see and use.
Senator Yunus Akintunde has once again drawn attention to the importance of tangible constituency projects with the inauguration of two newly constructed blocks of classrooms in Oyo Central Senatorial District.
The two projects, inaugurated on Friday, October 23, 2026, comprise three classrooms each and are located at Muslim Community School in Oke-Isanmi, Ilora, in Afijio Local Government Area, and L.A. Town School in Idi-Ope, Oyo West Local Government Area.
The classroom blocks are intended to address congestion and provide pupils and teachers with a more conducive environment for learning. Beyond providing additional physical infrastructure, such projects can contribute to improved school enrolment, retention and learning outcomes by giving communities access to better-equipped learning spaces.
Akintunde’s intervention is particularly significant because classroom infrastructure remains one of the basic requirements for improving the quality of public education. The construction of additional classrooms means that pupils who might otherwise have been squeezed into overcrowded rooms can have more appropriate spaces for learning.
It also demonstrates why constituency representation is often judged not only by speeches, motions and policy proposals but by the physical impact of interventions in communities.
This brings us to Senator Sharafadeen Alli, who represents Oyo South Senatorial District and is now the APC candidate for the 2027 governorship election.
Alli has made education a major part of his gubernatorial agenda. In July 2026, he promised that, if elected governor, his administration would ensure that no primary or secondary school classroom in Oyo State would have more than 30 pupils. He argued that overcrowding, particularly classes containing 70 to 100 pupils, undermines effective learning.
That is an attractive and ambitious promise.
But it naturally raises an important question: where are the classrooms that Senator Alli has built or facilitated to demonstrate that vision at the constituency level?
This is not to suggest that Alli has recorded no interventions in education or infrastructure. Available reports show that he has supported education through WAEC payments, scholarships and coaching programmes, while his constituency record also includes major solar-lighting and other infrastructure interventions. His own campaign platform lists education, infrastructure and human-capital development among his priorities.
For example, in September 2025, reports stated that Alli facilitated a high-capacity solar power installation at the Federal Science and Technical College, Igangan, providing electricity for classrooms, laboratories and workshops. His 2026 campaign website also presents education transformation, teacher training, STEM and digital literacy, vocational pathways and scholarships as central commitments.
However, there is a distinction between supporting education through scholarships, training, electricity or other interventions and physically expanding classroom capacity.
That distinction is what makes Akintunde’s latest project noteworthy.
If the argument is that overcrowded classrooms are one of the major problems confronting Oyo schools, then the construction and facilitation of additional classrooms should arguably be among the most visible ways to demonstrate commitment to solving that problem.
Akintunde’s six new classrooms may not solve the entire education infrastructure deficit in Oyo Central, but they provide something immediately measurable: six additional classrooms that pupils can enter, teachers can use and communities can point to.
And that is the point of the comparison.
When we criticise Senator Sharafadeen Alli over the visibility of tangible projects, the question should not be whether he has done absolutely nothing. The available record does not support such a sweeping claim. Rather, the legitimate question is whether the scale and visibility of his physical constituency interventions match the expectations created by his political promises—particularly his pledge to reduce classroom congestion to a maximum of 30 pupils per class.
If Senator Alli wants to make 30 pupils per classroom a statewide benchmark as governor, Oyo voters are entitled to ask:
How many classrooms has he built or facilitated as senator to demonstrate that vision?
Which schools have benefited?
How many pupils have been moved out of overcrowded classrooms because of those interventions?
Those are fair questions for any public official seeking a higher office.
Ultimately, the debate should move beyond political slogans. Oyo people need measurable projects, clear records and evidence of delivery.
Akintunde’s newly inaugurated classrooms provide one example of such visible intervention.
For Senator Alli, the challenge is equally clear: if 30 pupils per classroom is the standard he promises to deliver as governor, where is the classroom infrastructure that shows Oyo residents that he has already begun walking that talk?
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