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In his usually high rated commentaries, the London based seasoned banker and political observer Ahmed Farah, has once again weigh in the APC party membership saga.
He took off the discussion by asking the APC Secretary General, Dr. Ambassador Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh these few questions;
- How many registered card-carrying members are there in the APC party?
- Between the card-carrying members and the supporters/ sympathizers who are in the majority?
- What are their age brackets?
- Are your members predominantly male or female?
The rationale behind these questions is that; it seems as if the Secretary General is more focused on card carrying party members than the millions of ordinary supporters/ sympathizers living in very remote villages without party cards.
There are supporters and sympathizers who have been consistently voting for the party all their lives but don’t have membership cards.
Does the SG want to judge a party by the number of registered card-carrying members? If so, then he seems to be oblivious of the fact that there are patrons, donors, top business executives, security personnel, civil servants and many such individuals who has the capacity to boost the party but want to remain anonymous. An example of such donors was the oil magnet Vincent Kanu of blessed memory. He bankrolled both the APC and SLPP during the late president Tejan Kabba’s administration but was neither a member nor a party card carrier.
With the advent of social media and its influence on public elections, any smart thinking political party can take advantage of it by recruiting millions of supporters and sympathizers but not card-carrying members.
The ill-intentioned press release from the APC secretary general doesn’t sound reconciliatory nor was it intended to bring lasting peace and reconciliation within the party.
The release could be described as a well calculated and orchestrated ploy to disenfranchise some potential members who might have intentions to run for national executive positions at the National Delegates Conference.
How do you expect someone with such intention to start campaigning when their memberships are still standing on mosquito legs?
According to learned Justice Fisher, while addressing the party in court said, “memberships is the life blood of any political party” and besides democracy is a game of numbers.
However, in the interest of peace and reconciliation the party should have granted a blanket amnesty to all those who had resigned, suspended, wrongly expelled from the party to return home unconditionally but unfortunately, he came out with a press release that begs for more questions than answers.
