The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Ajibola Basiru, has described the 45 million membership strength of the party as a fabrication which, he said, was deployed as a tool for fighting causes unknown to the present leadership.
Basiru, speaking at the opening session of the e-membership registration and ‘Train-the-Trainer’ workshop in Abuja, on Wednesday, said the 2023 election, where the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu (now president) struggled to amass less than 10 million votes to coast home to victory, showed the figure was a mere fabrication.
The Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Committee of the APC, headed by Governor Mala Buni of Yobe State, during the convention of the party held on March 27, 2022, which produced the immediate-past national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, had stated that the membership of the party rose from 11 million to 41 million.
This, he ascribed to the membership registration/revalidation conducted by the outgoing leadership.
He said that the figure could rise beyond 41 million as the registration was still ongoing.
Buni also said the CECPC succeeded in reconciling many aggrieved members of the party as well as attracting three serving state governors from Zamfara, Cross River and Ebonyi from the Peoples Democratic Party to the party.
Basiru, while quoting the doctrine of the late Guinean nationalist, Amilcar Cabral, however, stressed that weaponisation of any political party’s register could only lead to corruption.
Hailing the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, for not sweeping the details under the carpet, Basiru charged the trainers and coordinators saddled with the task of producing the new membership register not to admit anybody without a National Identification Number.
He said, “If we have that membership of 45 million, how come we went to the poll and got votes of less than 10 million? In line with Amilcar Cabral’s doctrine of ‘tell no lies, claim no easy victories’, that has exhumed the lie.
“In exposing that, it is not to ridicule anybody. It is to know that when a child falls, he will look at the front. But when an elder falls, he will look back to see where he made a mistake. We made a mistake because the register of the party was a tool for fighting causes we don’t know. The weaponisation of the party’s register led to corruption.
“It was on this basis that the National Working Committee decided that one of the cardinal programmes would be to have a digitalised and biometric-based registration system linked with the National Identification Number of all members. This is an exercise we must take with all seriousness to ensure we have a register conducted with integrity.”
Ganduje also shared his sentiment, saying, “Nigerians willing to officially register as members of the APC are expected to provide their biometric data, which must tally with the details captured in the NIN.”
According to him, the process would not only drive the planning, decision-making and projection stage, it would further serve as the basis of reference for any member of the party seeking appointment at any level or desiring to contest an election.
“The APC portal, which the prospective trainees from the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory are expected to use, will soon be reactivated so that the existing and new members can go online to register and join our party from any part of the world.
“Each person is expected to provide his or her biometric data, which must tally with the details captured in the National Identification Number. May I, therefore, appeal to our honourable ministers who are stakeholders in this project to kindly provide us with technical assistance towards achieving these laudable objectives?” he appealed.
