E-registration: APC registers over 2 million members, targets 9 million by January end

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has announced that more than two million Nigerians have already been digitally registered and verified as members of the ruling party, barely one week after the commencement of its nationwide membership registration and revalidation exercise.

Ajibola Basiru, the National Secretary of the APC disclosed this on Monday after a meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) with state coordinators overseeing the registration exercise across the country.

According to him, the meeting, which was presided over by Nentawe Yilwatda, National Chairman of the party, was convened to assess the progress of the exercise and reinforce the urgency of compliance with the directive of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC).

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“This afternoon, the National Chairman of the APC, Nentawe Yilwatda, and myself, the National Secretary, and the senior members of the National Working Committee, had a meeting with the state coordinators of the membership in the institution of the APC,” he said.

He noted that leaders of the APC State Chairmen Forum were also present, including its chairman, Pastor Cornelius Otelabi, alongside other state party officials.

The National Secretary said the APC leadership had made it clear that the registration exercise must be concluded promptly, stressing that the NEC had given a firm mandate for the digitisation of the party’s membership database.

“The National Chairman had charged the state coordinators on the importance of getting this exercise correctly and timeously, just as we have been mandated by the National Executive Council of the party that held in December,” he said.

“I will give a directive that before the end of January, we want all our members to be digitally identified.”

He explained that the emphasis on digital registration was driven by the need for efficiency and credible data management within the party.

“The significance of the registration is underscored by the fact that data is very important to operational efficiency of any organisation, no less than that of a political party that thrives on mobilisation, organisation, and consultation of leaders,” he said.

According to him, the NWC has been empowered to take disciplinary action against state coordinators who fail to deliver.

“Any states that have been found lacking, we at the National Working Committee have been given the latitude to change the status of state coordinators if they are not on-going,” he said.

Providing an update on the progress so far, the APC chieftain revealed that over two million members had already been captured on the digital platform, complete with their voter identification numbers.

“We are happy to inform the Nigerian people that as of today, just a week into the exercise, with many of the states yet to even start in full trotting, Nigerians who are registered to be members of APC are already in excess of two million members who are digitally verified and have their name and also have their voter identification number,” he said.

He expressed optimism that the figure would rise significantly in the coming days.

“We emphasise that in the couple of days, particularly when we’ll be making another assessment by next week, we should be in the region of about eight or nine million in membership, by the grace of God,” he added.

The National Secretary urged party stakeholders at all levels to take the exercise seriously, describing it as central to strengthening the APC as an “organic party.”

“It stands at the root of ensuring that we have an organic party that is succinct in mobilising Nigerians for the support of the renewal of our agenda of our president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.

Responding to questions from journalists on accessibility, particularly in insecure and hard-to-reach areas, he assured that no member would be excluded due to logistical challenges.

“In the areas where there are challenges, what we have to solve is that the data of the members… will be manually taken and then they will be uploaded at the areas where there is access to them,” he explained.

“So all members of our party, irrespective of their location, irrespective of challenges by bandits or whatever it is, will have opportunity of registering in that regard.”

On concerns about grassroots access, he said registration officers had been deployed across wards nationwide.

“We have onboarded people who are able to do registration in all the political wards in Nigeria. And in some wards, we have as much as 10, 15 people depending on the size of the wards,” he said.

He attributed the rapid growth in numbers to the online nature of the exercise.

“That is why, within the period of seven days that some states have started, some states are yet to start, we have been able to have an incredible registration of more than two million people nationwide,” he said.

Addressing questions about previous failed registration exercises, he dismissed comparisons with the past.

“This is New Testament. I don’t want to talk about previous New Testament,” he said, drawing laughter from the room.

“The advantage of the present registration exercise is that it is online… and of course, we also have the benefit of ensuring the integrity of the data, because you cannot actually register if you don’t have a name that is linked to your telephone number and you don’t have voter identification number.”

On internal party factions, the APC National Secretary insisted that the process was inclusive and open to all tendencies within the party.

“Nobody, no group, should be denied opportunity of being registered,” he said, referencing a directive from President Tinubu as leader of the party.

“So no group, no faction is being legitimated or disallowed from registering. This is the decision of members.”

However, he declined to provide a state-by-state breakdown of the registered members, describing such details as confidential.

“You cannot reveal your trade secrets in public,” he said.

“We are a pan-Nigerian political party and the strengths of our party… is that we are strong in all the political regions of the country. So the issue of state-by-state breakdown… are internal trade secrets of our party and will not be revealed to the public.”

He thanked the party stakeholders at the state level for their commitment, noting that challenges identified during the exercise were already being addressed through engagement with relevant actors.

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