APC membership registration, opportunity for youth involvement - chieftain

The Publicity Secretary, Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress in Ogun State, Tunde Oladunjoye, has described the ongoing membership registration of the party as an opportunity for Nigerian youths to get involved in the administration of the country.

Oladunjoye, who spoke in a statement, therefore urged the youth to register during the exercise.

He said: “A lot of Nigerians have attained the age of 18 and we need to open the democratic space for them.

“The generation that we refer to as the ‘Sorosoke’ generation, to have them as members of the party where they can vote and be voted for.

“So, this is an opportunity for the youths who have attained the age of 18 to join, formally, the APC and enjoy the rights and privileges of being a member of the party.”

Oladunjoye also dismissed the belief in some quarters that the revalidation exercise has been designed to spite some members of the party.

He explained: “I don’t agree with that and I want to tell you from personal experience and what is really on the card that It is like shooting yourself in the leg or scoring a goal against yourself.

“If you try to prevent some people from registering because we are talking of membership that will drive the party, people that will mobilise for the party, people that will campaign for the party.”

He said the APC Caretaker Committee Chairman in Ogun State, Yemi Sanusi, has directed that anyone who comes in to register must be registered and that any booth or ward where it is confirmed that people are prevented from registering, such booth or ward will be cancelled.

The Publicity Secretary added that “politics is local” and that he aligned with the position of President Muhammadu Buhari that aspirants for either the Local or State would no longer come from Abuja.

He said: “I want to align with the position of Mr President on this issue.

“Politics is local, it is grassroots; President Buhari has gone back to Daura to register in his ward, his polling booth because politics is local, bottom-up.

“You can’t climb a tree from the top.

“So, we identify with the position of the President that they should allow the locals, the grassroots people, to pick their leaders and not that someone will just stroll in from nowhere to pick ticket or slot.

“Let people who have laboured for the party from the grassroots to be recognised and be rewarded.”