The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Ajibola Basiru, has said that the membership figure paraded by the party before now was exposed by the outcome of the 2023 elections.
The National Secretary said this at the flag-off of the training for the e-registration of APC members in Abuja on Wednesday.
Basiru said: “If we have that membership of 45 million, how come we went to the polls 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 register led to corruption.
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“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 that is 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.”
The National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, said only those on the e-register would be eligible to contest elections or secure appointments after the exercise.
Ganduje said the biometrics of party members must synchronise with their National Identity Number details, adding that the process would drive planning, decision-making, and projection processes.
He said: “We are gathered in fulfilment and accomplishment of our promise to start the process of digitising the membership of our party.
“This is an attempt to have a graphic idea of the total members of our party, their geographical spread, and demographic divisions.
“This process will not only drive the planning, decision-making, and projection processes, it will also serve as the basis of reference for any member of our party seeking appointment at any level or desiring to contest an election.
“The App and portal on which the prospective trainees from the 36 states and FCT, Abuja are expected to use, will soon be reactivated so that 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 NIN.
“By doing so, any member whose name appears on the digital register, shall be deemed to be true and faithful members of our great party.”
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