Membership registration: Oki hails APC leadership over reform

A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Faoud Oki, has commended the national leadership for its determination to reform the party through the planned membership registration drive, positing that taking such step would make the party more attractive and afford it the opportunity to transform Nigeria to a better country.

APC has scheduled to flag off nationwide its membership registration exercise on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, while the ongoing sensitisation ends on Monday, January 25, 2021.

Oki gave the commendation while speaking with newsmen in Ikeja area of the state, maintaining that there was the need for the party to embark on membership registration drive to enable it to have a comprehensive and reliable membership register.

This was just as he noted that the Lagos State chapter of the party cannot currently boast of a reliable membership register, saying what had been in practice all overtime was a situation where a new list of members was added to former list, making it difficult for the party to ascertain the clear-cut number of its members.

Oki, who said he and some party faithful had embarked on sensitisation of Lagosians towards the registration exercise, stated that the drive was aimed at ensuring that APC can be truly called a political party in all its ramification and one with very clear ideological base.

“We embark on membership registration drive because we believe that as I think what APC is trying to do now is to revert the political party so that it can be called political party in all its ramification- a political party which will have a very clear ideological base.

“Our party is noted to be the party of progressives, that should entail our ideals, unfortunately, what we have now is a party of all comers, no clear cut ideology.

“That is what the reforms of APC seek to achieve, a party which membership register is robust and endearing. 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 (5) million membership and my question is: How do they arrive at that figure? I almost concluded that. if our party has 5 million membership, why do we need to campaign during election if INEC registered 6.4 million voters in Lagos State and one party has 5 million membership? It should be a done deal but, unfortunately, that has not been the case,” the APC chieftain argued.

Oki, while noting that the party’s current membership register was fake, and could not stand the test of time, said any member who had been with the party since the days of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now APC would tell you he had registered with 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 bastardized register, and 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. 

“It is also an invitation for party supporters and progressives. The membership registration is a welcome invitation for us to appeal to members of the public to come and join the party, and together they should build the party.”