APC membership registration an aberration ­— Akande

• It’s good for our party – Gbajabiamila

From Hameed Oyegbade (Osogbo), Muideen Olaniyi (Abuja) & Romoke W. Ahmad (Minna)
Pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bisi Akande has faulted the party’s  membership registration exercise, describing it an indefensible wastage.

Akande, a political associate of the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, also described the caretaker committee overseeing the affairs of the party under the leadership of Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, as an abnormality.

The national caretaker and extraordinary convention planning committee of the party declared the nationwide exercise to update and validate membership registers of the party across its chapters.

President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the exercise on Saturday in Daura, Katsina State, with a call on all members of the party to participate in the exercise.

He was speaking shortly after he was registered by the party delegation led by Senator Lawan Shuaibu at his Ward 04, Unit 012, Isedo1, Ila-Orangun, Osun State on Wednesday.

The State governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, his deputy, Gboyega Alani, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, among others witnessed Akande’s registration.

Akande said political party register is different from population census or voters register, noting that over N1bn was spent on the last membership registration of the party.

He said the original party register created the foundation of all the structures that stimulated the movements that pushed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) out of power in 2015.

“Please, permit me to make two observations. The first is that in normal circumstances, a caretaker executive committee for a political party is an abnormality. If not carefully controlled and expeditiously managed, most aberrant authorities end up in contempt and disgrace.

“For this reason, I want to urge the present APC caretaker committee to resist all temptations of sit-tight syndromes that usually characterise most handpicked authorities in most underdeveloped countries of the world,” he said.

The former chairman said: “The second is to say that no population census is repeated within less than a decade and that voters are not re-registered at every election. Within this context, I see the present APC membership registration within less than a decade after the original register as an indefensible aberration leading to certain ugly perceptions.

“The first major perception is that APC, already having a well-computerised register for an average of 100 leaders of similar ideological orientation per each of the more than 120,000 polling units across Nigeria, might be lacking comprehension and matrix of the modern-day technology.

“The second major perception is that APC leadership might be wasteful and unappreciative of the proper use of money in the kind of scanty economy in which Nigeria now finds itself

“These seeming ugly perceptions put into abeyance the applause of the two national election successes that the original APC register enjoyed since its completion on 15th February 2014 and the over N1 billion, of 2014’s value, that the original register cost when APC had no money of its own.”

Akande warned that the next national election that would elect a successor to President Buhari would be the most important test of the on-going APC membership registration and whatever structure was envisaged to be imposed on it.

Gbajabiamila backs registration

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday backed the registration exercise.

Addressing reporters after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja yesterday, he enjoined everybody to embrace the exercise to take ownership of the party.

He said: “Everybody should come out and register. You know registration is the beginning of an election process, election is not a one day event it has started already.

“I will encourage all party members, those who are not even party members who have not registered before, those who have attained the age of 18, those who have seen the good works of Mr President and this party to come in and join the fold and register, so that come 2023, you know politics is about numbers, they can pick whoever they want to elect to represent them as a party flag bearer.

“Don’t forget registration serves dual purpose, one is for primary and the second one is for election. You have to take ownership of the party and that is what we are asking people to do.”

Meanwhile, in Kwara State, the stakeholders’ meeting for the registration exercise could not hold yesterday as fight broke out at the venue, the state banquet hall in Ilorin, the state capital.