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during the African Democratic Congress (ADC) membership revalidation, mobilisation, and registration flag-off held at the Barcelona Hotel in Abuja, I charged our party to ensure we build our membership register with integrity and not bloat our figures as many parties in Nigeria do.
We must not follow that path. We must resist, with every fibre of our conviction, the temptation to inflate our numbers with imaginary people. It does not help us. It does not strengthen us. At the end of such an exercise, all we will have is a token register propped up by a weak structure—impressive on paper, powerless in practice.
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.
Below is my full speech from the event.
A REGISTER OF CONVICTION, NOT CONVENIENCE
Membership Integrity as the Foundation of a Party Built to Last
Address by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, ADC National Secretary to the Senior Leadership of the ADC
Distinguished leaders, members of the National Executive Committee, state and local party officers, and all who carry the banner of the African Democratic Congress—good day
We have spoken before about building what must outlive us. Today, I want to speak about the very foundation of that building—the people who make up this party. Because if the foundation is false, what we raise upon it will not stand.
I. The Temptation of Numbers
Let me begin with a truth that is uncomfortable but necessary. 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.
We must not follow that path. We must resist—with every fibre of our conviction—the temptation to bloat our figures with imaginary people. It does not help us. It does not strengthen us. At the end of such an exercise, all we will have is a token register propped up by a weak structure—impressive on paper, powerless in practice.
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.
II. Membership Integrity as Sacred Duty
What we need—what we must build with urgency and discipline—is a membership register of integrity. Every name must belong to a real person. Every person must be documented, verified, and accounted for. This is not bureaucracy; this is the architecture of trust.
Every one of us—from national leadership down to the ward level—must work together to ensure that only real people are registered and properly documented. This is a collective responsibility. No leader should look the other way when registrations are padded. No officer should accept figures that cannot withstand scrutiny. We must be our own auditors before the public audits us.
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.
III. Conscious Members, Active Citizens
But integrity of registration is only the beginning. What matters more is the quality of membership that follows. We do not want members who exist only as names in a database. We want conscious members—men and women who understand what this party stands for and are willing to work for it.
A conscious member is one who attends ward meetings regularly. A conscious member pays their dues—not because they are compelled, but because they are invested. A conscious member studies the party manifesto, understands its policy positions, explains our vision to their neighbours, and defends our principles in the public square.
A conscious member does not work for the party only during elections. They work for the party every day—in every ward, every local government, every state. They follow party lines, uphold party discipline, and serve wherever the party asks them to serve. This is the membership we must cultivate: loyal, informed, and active.
IV. A Model of Democratic Sophistication
The African Democratic Congress does not seek merely to participate in Nigeria’s democracy. We seek to redefine it. We aspire to be the model of democratic sophistication—in our operations, in our internal governance, and in the ownership every member feels over this institution.
Democratic sophistication means that our processes are transparent, that our decisions are arrived at through consultation, and that every member—regardless of their position—has a voice that is heard and respected. It means that our party constitution is not a document we reference when convenient, but the supreme law that governs all our affairs.
It means we do not merely talk about democracy; we practise it. From how we select our candidates to how we manage our finances, from how we resolve disputes to how we engage with the electorate—every action must reflect the democratic standard we promise the nation.
V. We Will Not Only Seek Power—We Will Govern Ourselves
Let me say this plainly: we are not only going to seek elections. We are going to govern ourselves effectively—first. We will hold ourselves to the same standard of accountability we demand of those in power. If we cannot govern our own party with integrity, what right do we have to ask Nigerians to trust us with their government?
This means every naira collected must be accounted for. Every decision taken must be explained. Every leader among us must submit to the authority of the party’s structures. No one is above the system. No one is exempt from scrutiny.
We have said before that the greatest threat to our mission is the island mentality—the belief that any one individual is bigger than the institution. Today,I say again: that threat has not disappeared. It lives wherever ego displaces process, wherever personal ambition overrides collective purpose. We must guard against it with the full force of our institutional discipline.
VI. The Work Ahead
So let us be clear about the work before us. We must build a membership registration system that is credible, verifiable, and incorruptible. We must train our ward officers to conduct registrations with rigour and integrity. We must create mechanisms of accountability at every level, so that no one can corrupt the process without consequence.
We must invest in political education—so that every member who joins us understands not just the party’s name but its mission, its manifesto, and its expectations. We must build a culture where paying dues, attending meetings, and participating in party activities is the norm, not the exception.
And we must fund these efforts. Building a credible institution costs money, time, and sacrifice. We have spoken about this before and it bears repeating: if we do not have a system and the leaders committed to funding it, we stand very little chance against the challenges ahead.
VII. Our Covenant with the Future
Distinguished leaders, what we build today will be judged not by the size of our register but by the strength of our institution. A party of two million conscious, committed members will outperform a party of ten million phantoms every single time. Quality over quantity. Substance over spectacle. Conviction over convenience.
The African Democratic Congress must be a party where every member matters, where every voice counts, and where every name on our register represents a real person with a real stake in Nigeria’s future.
We are not building a party for the next election. We are building a party for the next generation. And that building must be constructed on a foundation of truth—truth about who we are, truth about what we stand for, and truth about the people who stand with us.
Let us begin this work with clean hands and clear eyes. Let us build a register worthy of the party we are building—and a party worthy of the nation we serve.
Thank you.
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