2023 Election Exposed APC’s Fake Membership Figure of 45M — Scribe

• Senator Ajibola Basiru revealed that the 2023 election exposed the falsity of APC’s claimed membership figures, which were inflated for political purposes
• APC plans to implement a digitalized, biometric-based registration system linked to NIN to ensure an accurate and integrity-driven membership register

The national secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, stated that the 2023 general election revealed the falsity of the party’s previously claimed membership figures. Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja during the flag-off of the train-the-trainer workshop on e-registration of APC members, Basiru highlighted discrepancies in the party’s reported membership numbers.

In 2021, the APC National Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, led by Governor Mai Mala Buni, conducted a membership registration and revalidation exercise, announcing that over 40 million members were registered. However, Basiru quoted an inflated figure of 45 million, which he described as fabricated and used for undisclosed political purposes.

Basiru pointed out that during the 2023 elections, the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now the president, struggled to secure more than eight million votes. He remarked, “If we had that membership of 45 million, how come we went to the poll and got less than 10 million votes? In line with Amilcar Cabral’s doctrine of ‘tell no lies, claim no easy victories,’ that has exhumed the lie.”

He clarified that exposing the inflated figures meant not to ridicule anyone but to acknowledge past mistakes. “We made a mistake because the party register was a tool for fighting causes we don’t know. The weaponisation of the party register led to corruption,” Basiru added.

In response to these issues, Basiru announced that the National Working Committee (NWC) decided to implement a digitalized and biometric-based registration system linked to all members’ National Identification Number (NIN). “This is an exercise we must take with all seriousness to ensure that we have a register conducted with integrity,” he emphasized.

APC national chairman Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje also stated that only those listed in the new e-register would be eligible to contest elections or secure appointments after the exercise.