2027: ADC eyes govt takeover as membership drive begins — Mark

2026-02-12 - 14:39

...Aregbesola warns: A party of ‘ghosts’ cannot win elections, govern By Luminous Jannamike ABUJA — The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has formally launched a nationwide membership registration drive, introducing a dual manual and online system that party leaders say is the foundation for a serious push for power in 2027. The official commencement ceremony was held in Abuja on Thursday. Speakers included ADC National Chairman, Senator David Mark; Chairman of the Registration Committee, Alhaji Imam Ibrahim; Deputy Chairperson of the Committee and head of the online registration platform, Aisha Yesufu; and National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who addressed party leaders and stakeholders at the event. “What we’re kicking off today is laying a solid foundation for our future results in the ADC. Once you get the cards and you start the exercise, register anybody who wants to be a member of ADC. I know what they do in other political parties. Somebody will buy the cards and keep them in his room. Our cards will not be kept in the rooms. Our cards will be given to our members,” Mark stated. He stressed that access to membership would not be controlled by gatekeepers or influenced by personal loyalty. “For ADC, it is our card, for all ADC members. Whether you are our friend or you are our enemy, as long as you want to register with us and as long as you abide by our do’s and don’ts, we’ll give you our cards,” he added. The former Senate President linked the exercise directly to the party’s electoral ambition. “I assure you that in 2027, ADC will form the government and this is the foundation for that we need. This is the foundation that we are laying today,” Mark said. Explaining the registration framework, Alhaji Imam Ibrahim said the committee deliberately avoided relying solely on a conventional website or a downloadable mobile application. “We thought of developing websites and we felt that at a point websites will crash. We also thought of developing an app and we felt that at a point many people don’t want to buy an app or download an app just for party registration. So we came up with what we call web app,” Ibrahim said. He said membership cards would be distributed based on demand to prevent waste and hoarding. “We are not going to give out cards to be kept there and they will not be used. We are putting on demand and on interim we have said that we are going to give each state 50,000 cards from today so that you go and register because we want a platform where the manual registration goes alongside the online registration,” he said. He added that both systems were approved by the party’s National Working Committee to ensure inclusiveness across the country. “We are here to demonstrate these two platforms. One the online registration and one the manual registration which is very important because internet penetration is a little bit low. So we don’t want to disenfranchise anybody,” Ibrahim said. Speaking on the digital platform, Aisha Yesufu said the system was designed to be seamless, fast, and verifiable, taking into account Nigeria’s demographic realities. “In terms of the registration, it’s something that is seamless, it’s quick, within a minute or two it is done and it does have the passport picture on it and with the passport picture that you’re able to get your details. There is also a QR code on it. At any time you can always bring up the details of the person that is there,” she said. Yesufu explained that the platform relies on voters’ identification numbers as a key verification requirement. “There were a lot of permutations, there were a lot of back and forth on the issue of being the primary means of ensuring that the people who are there, are verified... and we ended up settling with the voter’s identification number, something that is compulsory that everyone will have to put in with the assumption that everyone who has a PVC will be coming on,” She said. In a keynote address titled ‘A Register of Conviction, Not Convenience,’ National Secretary Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola cautioned against inflating membership figures for optics. “Across our political landscape, parties have become addicted to the illusion of size. They inflate membership rolls with phantom names, duplicate entries, and invented identities, all to project a strength they do not possess. The registers are fat, but the structures are hollow. “A party of ghosts cannot win elections. A party of ghosts cannot govern. A party of ghosts cannot hold its leaders to account. And a party of ghosts will, inevitably, be haunted by its own dishonesty,” he added. The former Osun governor urged party leaders at all levels to treat membership integrity as a collective responsibility and to build a disciplined, conscious base of active members. “The integrity of our register is the integrity of our party. If we cannot be honest about who we are, we have no moral authority to demand honesty from those who govern,” Aregbesola said. Party officials said the nationwide registration exercise will continue across states through both the online and manual platforms, describing it as the structural groundwork for building what they called a credible and enduring political institution.