By Okon Bassey
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Akwa Ibom State Chapter, has commenced membership drive through electronic registration and revalidation exercise meant to expand its membership base ahead of 2023 general elections in the country.
The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, who flaged-off the exercise in Uyo, enjoined party faithful to take advantage of the exercise, which puts an end to rigorous procedure posed by the analogue method.
Emmanuel commended the party for introducing the innovations to ease registration of members and announced the donation of smart phones to all the wards in the State to assist those without smartphones in the registration process.
“I am glad that Akwa Ibom is chosen as one of the states by our party for a scheme of this nature, we got everything ready for the exercise, and you could see the speed my information was captured immediately.
“I want to implore all of us to make sure we register, this will mean a whole lot to us as a state and to the party.
“This is easily adaptive to any smartphone that people could use to register. We will present the smartphones across all the wards so that it will be easier for people to register. Please make sure you register,” he urged.
The governor advised party members to accommodate one another in order to strengthen the party, especially those who defected and are willing to rejoin the party.
“I want to thank the party structure, the State Working Committee, for their steadfastness. Please, we must continue to accommodate people. Let us accommodate as many as we can. Let us open up and try to tolerate people.
“God did not create every human being the same. People have different temperament, different attitude, character, behavioural pattern, so we should be able to accommodate others so that we can move forward.
“If you are in a unit or ward even if somebody had gone out or astray and the person wants to come back, let’s give the person an open hand, it is very interesting and good to belong to a winning team,” the governor said.
Earlier, the State Chairman of PDP, Mr. Aniekan Akpan, said the exercise was in sync with an earlier flag-off of the exercise in six others PDP states in the country.
Akpan, who described the e-registration and revalidation of members of the party as historic, averred that the commencement of the e-registration ended the analogue method of registration, as it provided a platform for self-registration that is easier and faster for members.
He said: “This exercise we strongly believe as a party will ensure that we migrate from the analogue process of registration to a digital platform with attendant benefits.
“Apart from making the registration process easier, faster, open and less cumbersome, it also provides members with a transparent platform for self-registration and eliminates cases of registration denial.”
