A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Prof. Festus Arunaye, has said that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is willing to correct any mistakes he may have made during his tenure in office.
Arunaye, a national member of the ADC Membership Revalidation, Mobilisation and Registration Committee, made the remarks at the weekend during the inauguration of a 10-member Delta State committee on membership registration in Asaba.
Addressing party members after the inauguration, Arunaye said the National Executive Committee of the party had issued a clear directive mandating all states to submit interim reports on membership registration and financial accountability within 30 days.
According to him, Atiku supports a free, fair and credible primary election process and believes in collective success, a position he said places the ADC in a strong position ahead of the next general election.
“Also, I will tell you is that Atiku Abubakar wants to right the wrongs, if he had done any wrong while he was the Vice President. Atiku has not condemned any other aspirants coming together to form the coalition.
“Atiku believes that they will all go to the primary, which will be free, fair, and credible, and that any person who wins, the ADC will work for that person.
That is the goal and mission of our great party,” he said.
Arunaye explained that the inauguration of the state committee became necessary to guarantee transparency and accountability in the party’s membership revalidation and registration exercise.
He assured members that the hoarding of membership cards, which he said had occurred in the past, would not happen under the new ADC structure, noting that state, local government and ward chairmen would have no direct access to the cards.
He urged committee members to conduct themselves with integrity and ensure that membership cards were not monopolised by wealthy individuals. He added that the cards were designed with unique features to prevent their use outside the state of issuance.
The ADC national committee member further disclosed that membership cards would be distributed strictly based on each state’s demand and warned against the collection of money on behalf of the national body. He stressed that cards must not be collected by proxy and that all payments must be made into a designated deposit account.
“We know that ADC is a coalition of different faces of politicians, some of whom have been in government for long and have amassed substantial wealth to buy off the cards. This ADC doesn’t want that to happen.
“If you are in the village, you have an equal opportunity of having your card, and it is duly accounted for in Abuja through the database because as you pay into the account, you will have the information that you are a financial member of the party.
“Secondly, we are going to follow the physical registration with electronic registration. The App for that is being developed and would be ready in the next five days for all the states and the FCT. So, this is a new era of politicians that have come together to uplift our dear nation from pilfering and mismanagement and for the people at the grassroots to have a stake and equal opportunity with the money bags in the party,” Arunaye said.
Speaking on behalf of the newly inaugurated 10-member committee, its chairman, Dr. Leo Ebinim, pledged that the team would intensify efforts to expand the party’s membership, strengthen mobilisation, supervise the revalidation and registration process in the state and submit its report within the stipulated timeframe.
