The All Progressives Congress (APC), has restated its avowed commitment to the welfare and security for all Nigerians, saying nothing would make it derail from the onerous focus of providing a safety net for all citizens, as encapsulated in the policy thrust of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This was the unanimous position maintained by party stakeholders in Ekiti State, including the Party’s Chairman, Sola Elesin, Special Assistant on Political Matters to the Governor, Chief Jide Awe and the Ekiti state Coordinator of APC e-registration exercise, Mr Adesola Gold Adedayo.
They gave the unanimous verdict, on Friday, during the flag off of Train-The-Trainers APC membership e- registration, held at the party state Secretariat in Ado Ekiti.
Speaking at the political event, the APC leader , Hon. Sola Elesin, posited that President Tinubu is incurably committed to tackling the menace of debilitating economy and the spiraling insecurity across the six zones of the country, urging the citizens not to fret in view of the present situation.
Elesin described the e- registration exercise as pivotal to the survival of the party, by way of solidifying its support base, saying the step was a dream being fulfilled.
The APC chieftain added that the outcome of the last presidential election in Nigeria, propelled the APC to come up with the programme.
Elesin said, “Prior to the election, we believed we would have 50 million party members who would vote for our president in the election, but the result was released, we had just over 11 million votes for Mr President. This shows that even our party members failed to vote going by the data.
“Since that time , we have been looking for a way to have accurate data about actual number of the members of the party, that is the essence of continued digital membership process. We believe we will have accurate data for whatever we want to organize in the party and to forge ahead”.
The former APC State Chairman and the Special Assistant to the governor on political matters, Chief Jide Awe who warned against proxy registration urged the trainees to be just and committed while doing the job.
“We have been looking for it for the past 15 years and we must do it well. When you do it well, it is for our own food. It is for the committed members of the party”
Describing the programme as a grand design to shore up the buoy the party’s membership, the State e-registration coordinator and former youth commissioner, Hon Gold Adesola Adedayo, said the party decided to do the e-registration to digitalize the initial record of the party members.
Adedayo, who is now a commissioner-designate, said, “It is primarily for digitalizing party membership register. It is to give accountability, transparency and of course to enhance service delivery from our party and when we no know our exact figure, then the dividends of democracy will not be difficult to spread to all.
“This is the reason behind this program. We all know that we have a register before now, and we have all registered from our units to the wards, the state and even the federal.
“But the different now ,is that it will be digitalized and we will all have access to it from our phones, in our homes, we can check our membership of the party. It will also give us the opportunity of authenticating the actual numbers of the party members in the state . There will no longer be contradicting figure on membership of the party.
“We are expecting all our members across the 177 wards in the state to register. I know that Ekiti people are for APC and so I am looking at about 70 to 80 percent of the population of Ekiti to turn out in their large number to register as APC card-carrying members”.
Speaking on how the process will be executed, he said, “The program, is a four -tier strategy . The first one, from me, as the state coordinator, I have been set up from Abuja to have access to the platform that will be used to gather data. I will be the one to onboard three available Senatorial administrators, one for each Senatorial district that we have.
“From that step to local government coordinators , the three Senatorial admins will onboard the local government coordinators which are five for each of the three Senatorial districts in the state.The local government coordinators will be the one to onboard ward agents.
“This is the reason why the party resolved that the ward agents must be trained and they will be given digital tablets to carry out the job.The agent at their ward level, will be registering all APC members on daily basis”.
The state commissioner for Information, Hon.Taiwo Olatubosun, commended the leadership of the party in the state for deeming it necessary at this point to start the process of revalidation and registration of the membership of APC.
He said, “The process is very important at this state , particularly for a very proper planning, documentation of all party membership and party membership is increasing by the day across the state.I believe the party at the national level considered it necessary, that it is good to authenticate and property document information about our membership.
“It is also important, because it will really show that the party can be trusted, because it is only APC in this country and specifically in this state that can boast of having records of its membership. The process will equally assist in the mobilization towards the 2026 governorship election and help in providing for any internal programs of the party.We should encourage our people to key into the process”.
The Technical Adviser to the Governor on Local Government Affairs, Engineer Stephen Olabode Adetunji, said the registration is important for all the members of the party in the state .
Adetunji who doubles as central coordinator for the program in the state said those being trained for that purpose, are party members who are computer-literate, versatile in the use of computer and can also navigate the web.
“The mission is largely to onboard the ward agents who are the people that will interface with the party members across the state to ensure that all party members are captured and registered”.