Nigeria’s ruling APC moves membership politics into the data age as Gov. Radda enrols publicly

Nigeria’s party machine is being rewired—quietly, but consequentially. Katsina State Governor Dikko Umaru Radda has publicly completed the All Progressives Congress (APC) electronic membership registration and revalidation at Katuka Polling Unit, Radda Ward, Charanchi LGA, framing the exercise as a reset button for internal democracy, cohesion, and organisational capacity. 

The symbolism is intentional: a sitting governor lining up at his polling unit is meant to broadcast a simple message—membership is no longer an informal claim backed by patronage, but a verifiable entry in a digital register.

What exactly happened in Charanchi—and why it matters

According to the governor’s remarks at the exercise, Radda said he participated “not as Governor, but as a loyal party member” to demonstrate that all members are equal under party rules.  He linked the e-registration to strengthening internal democracy and a clearer pathway for political rights inside the party—arguing that proper registration is what qualifies a member to seek positions “from councillor… to Governor and even President.” 

This matters because in many Nigerian parties, membership lists are political weapons—inflated, duplicated, or selectively “activated” during primaries. When a party controls who is “legitimately” on the register, it effectively controls who can vote, who can contest, and who can be disqualified.

The APC’s national push: a deadline-driven mass registration

This is not a Katsina-only project. The APC’s e-registration is described as a nationwide exercise intended to update and authenticate membership data and enhance transparency. 

At the national level, APC leadership has turned the exercise into a compliance test:

• APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda instructed state coordinators to register all members or risk removal, emphasizing that membership claims must align with electoral reality. 

• The registration window has been reported as running from January 5 to January 30, 2026. 

• APC officials cited over 2 million registrations within one week of the exercise taking off in some states. 

Meanwhile, the APC’s Lagos chapter publicly argued the e-registration is “not optional,” casting it as a modernising reform aimed at eliminating duplication and impersonation and making credible primaries possible. 

Why parties digitise membership: “ghost members” are a governance problem, not just a party problem

Digitising membership is not simply administrative—it changes the internal balance of power. A digital register can:

1. Reduce “ghost membership” inflation (names that exist only on paper, or are duplicated across wards).

2. Lower the room for gatekeeping by local brokers who decide whose names “appear” when primaries arrive.

3. Make disputes easier to audit (at least in theory), because digital logs can show who registered, when, and where.

But digitisation also creates new vulnerabilities:

• Control of devices and logins can become the new gatekeeping. Notably, APC leadership has warned against anyone blocking members from registering and urged coordinators to use phones where tablets are unavailable—an acknowledgement that logistics can become political chokepoints. 

• Data privacy risks rise: once membership becomes a digital asset, it can be exploited for profiling, mobilisation, or intimidation—especially in highly competitive local contexts.

The real test: can rural Nigeria register smoothly?

The biggest obstacle is not the idea—it’s execution.

For states with large rural populations, e-registration requires:

• Network coverage or offline capture tools that sync later

• Adequate devices and trained registrars

• Trust—members must believe the system won’t be used to exclude them later

When registration is time-bound, areas with weaker connectivity can end up undercounted, and undercounting quickly becomes political: “our people were disenfranchised.”

Kenya parallel: why the comparison to UDA is useful—but not identical

Your Kenya comparison is on point in one key way: Kenyan parties have increasingly pushed membership into digital systems, often with verification steps.

• UDA runs an online membership registration channel and provides a USSD code (*509#) for membership status confirmation. 

• Kenya’s Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) states it is custodian of party membership databases and describes processes where party membership details are forwarded through the Integrated Political Parties Management System (IPPMS) for verification/validation. 

The key lesson from Kenya: digitisation improves traceability, but legitimacy depends on public confidence—that the register is accurate, consent-based, and not quietly altered when stakes rise.

What to watch next in Nigeria

If you want to cover this story “extensively,” these are the next reporting checkpoints that will determine whether the reform is real or cosmetic:

1. Transparency of numbers by ward/LGA: Will APC publish credible breakdowns—or only headline totals?

2. Dispute resolution mechanism: How will members contest missing entries, duplicates, or wrongful exclusion before primaries?

3. Device governance: Who controls registration devices, credentials, and syncing? This is where “paper-era” manipulation often reincarnates digitally. 

4. Deadlines and extensions: With a January 30 end-date reported, will the party extend due to access constraints in some states? 

Bottom line

APC’s e-registration drive is being sold as a reform to strengthen internal democracy and eliminate the “shadow membership” culture that poisons primaries.  Governor Radda’s public enrolment is a carefully staged proof-point. But the deciding factor will be whether the digital register becomes a neutral source of truth—or simply a more sophisticated instrument of internal control.