The Road Never Lies: My Political Tour with Sen. Sharafadeen Alli Through Igbo-Oloyin | By Timilehin Kolade

There are political tours that are about mobilisation, consultations, handshakes and the familiar rituals of electoral politics. My recent political tour through Igboloyin with Sen. Sharafadeen Alli, governorship candidate of my party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), became something much more profound. What began as a political engagement became an encounter with the physical reality of governance. I was downcast. The terrible condition of the road was not merely an inconvenience to those of us travelling through it; it was a daily burden for the people who depend on that road for agriculture, commerce, education, healthcare and movement. In that moment, I realised that sometimes the most powerful political statement is not made at a rally or from a podium. Sometimes, it is written into the condition of a road.

The experience reinforced a simple truth: the road never lies. Politicians can make promises, governments can publish achievements and political parties can produce impressive manifestoes, but the physical environment in which citizens live often provides a more honest assessment of governance. A road does not distinguish between APC, PDP or any other political party. It does not care who occupies Government House. It simply reveals whether citizens can move, trade, farm and connect with opportunities. The Igboloyin road therefore became, for me, more than a road. It became a metaphor for the relationship between government and the governed.

A bad road is never merely an engineering problem. It is an economic problem, a social problem and, ultimately, a governance problem. Farmers pay more to transport their produce; traders face higher logistics costs; motorists spend more on repairs; students lose valuable time; businesses become less competitive; and emergency medical access becomes more difficult. What begins as a pothole can therefore become a hidden tax on citizens and a constraint on development. This is why rural infrastructure must not be treated as charity or an occasional political favour. It is an investment in productivity, mobility, inclusion and the economic integration of communities.

Travelling with Sen. Sharafadeen Alli also reminded me of what political tours ought to mean. A governorship candidate must see beyond campaign meetings, party structures and political calculations. He must see the roads, farms, markets, schools, health facilities and communities that he may eventually govern. He must encounter the realities that citizens experience long after politicians have left their communities. The value of political exposure is therefore not in the number of places visited but in the quality of understanding acquired. Seeing should lead to empathy; empathy should lead to understanding; understanding should lead to policy; and policy should ultimately produce action.

The Igboloyin experience also raises the question of how government prioritises rural communities. Development cannot be measured solely from the major cities. Oyo State is much larger than its urban centres. Its rural communities are part of its economic and social fabric, and their roads are critical to agriculture, commerce and mobility. When these communities remain poorly connected, the entire state loses economic opportunities. A farmer who cannot efficiently transport produce to market is not merely experiencing a transport problem; the state is losing productive capacity. A business discouraged by poor connectivity is a lost investment. Infrastructure, therefore, is not simply about movement—it is about creating the conditions under which people can prosper.

For the APC, experiences such as Igboloyin should inform the political conversation ahead of 2027. The party must offer more than criticism of the incumbent administration. It must present a credible alternative based on competence, clear priorities, responsible resource allocation and measurable results. Citizens should be able to ask every political party: What will you fix? What will you prioritise? How will you fund it? And how will we know that you have succeeded? These questions would elevate the electoral conversation beyond personalities and slogans to the substance of governance.

I went to Igboloyin with Sen. Sharafadeen Alli on a political tour. I expected another political engagement; I returned with a governance lesson. The road forced me to think about the farmer, trader, student, worker and family that must endure its condition every day. It reminded me that citizens experience government not through speeches, but through the conditions of their daily lives.

The road to Igboloyin was terrible, but its message was clear. It told us that governance must eventually be seen, felt and measured. It reminded us that no community is too distant to matter and no road is too remote to become a test of leadership.

The road never lies.