By Segun James
The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has commenced stakeholders’ sensitisation and membership drive for state residents to become members of the party.
A chieftain of the party in the state, Chief Faoud Oki, who disclosed this to journalists, said the drive is part of reforms taking place in the party, adding that the move is aimed at the new rebirth of the party.
Oki, who said the registration exercise would commence on January 26, 2021, stressed that there was the need for the party to embark on membership registration drive so that it can have a comprehensive and reliable membership register.
According to him, “The party cannot boast of a reliable membership register, so there is the need to re-register members of the party. So in Lagos, we have picked up the challenge of getting members registered.”
Oki, insisted that “we embarked on a membership registration because we believe that what APC is trying to do now is to revert, so that it can be called a political party in all ramification. APC is a political party that will have a very clear ideological base. Our party is noted to be the party of progressives, which should entails our ideals, unfortunately, what we have now is a party of all comers with no clear cut ideology.
“That is what the reforms in APC seek to achieve-a party which membership register is robust and enduring-it can be tested and interrogated at any time, and you will have accurate figure of membership, not what hitherto happens in Lagos where somebody rose up to say APC has five million members. My question is how do they arrive at that figure? I almost concluded that if our party has five million members, why do we need to campaign during election, if INEC registered 64 million voters in Lagos State and one party has 5 million members, it should be a done deal, but unfortunately that has not been the case.”
He explained that what the party rely on in Lagos State as membership register is unreliable. “Today, if you ask of membership registration, they will tell you we have membership register that is clean and accurate. The truth is, any member who has been with the party since the days of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Progressives Congress (APC) will tell you he has registered in the party four times, and what happens anytime there is a new registration, that register is added to the old register. We are supposed to have a robust register, what we have is a bastardised register. I think that is why it is imperative now for us to have fresh membership registration that will indicate very clearly who the party members are.”
