Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee, has disagreed with the party’s interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande on the ongoing membership Registration and Revalidation Exercise.
Akande had on Thursday blasted the CECPC for embarking on wasteful exercise insisting that the membership registration was not necessary as the previous was not up to 10 years.
According to him, such membership registration takes 10 years from each other and the last membership registration of APC was done in 2014.
According to Chief Akande “no population census is repeated within less than a decade and that voters are not reregistered at every election. Within this context, l see the the present APC membership registration within less than a decade after the original register as an Indefensible aberration, leading to certain ugly perceptions.”
However Buni in a statement from his Director General of Media, Mamman Mohammed said the APC membership registration and revalidation is a constitutional exercise.
According to him, it is carried out as a strategic measure taken to give new and existing members a sense of belonging.
He said, “the membership registration and revalidation exercise was a constitutional provision which is part of the strategic measures taken by the committee to give existing and new members a sense of belonging.
“Since the initial exercise in 2014, the party has not registered new members nor update the personal information of our existing members as provided for by the constitution.”
The registration exercise gives our new members a sense of belonging and the existing members will update their information while those who left the party will have their names removed from the party register.
” The registration and revalidation exercise would assist the party to generate a valid, accurate and upto date data on party membership to enhance and support its planning process.”
The Director General also quoted Buni as saying that the APC Caretaker committee has succeeded in building a new confidence among its members and reassuring them of a new hope in the party.
Akande had also described the Caretaker Committee as an aberration pointing that its activities may not pass legal scrutiny .
He said : “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 Executive Committee to resist all temptations of sit-tight syndromes that usually characterized most handpicked authorities in most underdeveloped countries of the world.”
Buni responded saying ” Our focus is to strengthen the party through a bottom-up approach and to carry everyone on board, while those aggrieved have happily rejoined APC just as new ones have joined the party.
“The Caretaker committee has reconciled many aggrieved members and factions across the country including the Zamfara state factions among others and bringing in prominent politicians into APC including Mr David Umahi the serving governor of Ebonyi state with more coming”
Buni dismissed claims that APC was wooing former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2023 presidency on its platform saying 2023 is not on its agenda for now.
“It is diversionary to start discussing 2023 elections now. We have a sitting president, Muhammadu Buhari, who is less than two years in office of his second term, we are concentrating on the success of his administration.”