Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, says the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) aims to build a two-million-member base, noting that the era of fragmented politics that denied Enugu State the benefits of the centre was over.
Mbah stated this during the flag-off of the APC e-registration exercise at Owo, Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, on Thursday, describing the exercise as a defining moment to concretise the movement from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC.
“It was just barely two and a half months ago that we chose partnership, progress, and chose to stop being on the sidelines. The time that we played fragmented politics is over. We no longer want to be on the sidelines, but we want to be at the centre and play dominant politics. This requires that we support the politics at the centre.
“It suffices to say that we do have a target. We have the sentiment that we are not going to give 5 per cent and expect the same treatment as those who gave 95 per cent. So, we now have a duty to change that.
“So, we have a target of registering at least a minimum of two million persons here in Enugu because when we had this grand movement, it was not about Peter Mbah, the state government, or a particular arm of government. It was total.
“So, we have work to do to ensure that the banner of our political party is entrenched in our various homes, not just communities. This is to make sure that our people are not confused and know where we stand at the centre, state, and local government levels. We are APC in the morning. We are APC in the day and we are APC in the night,” he asserted.
Mbah explained that the movement from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC in October 2025 was not to displace those already in the house, but to make the house stronger, more viable, and more beneficial to the people of Enugu State going forward.
“So, in conducting the e-registration, we must make sure that everyone is accommodated. We have not come to displace those who were there, but we have come to co-mingle with them and increase our numbers. At the end of the day, it is the people we are going to do this politics with and not woods. It is very important that we are flexible, accommodate the people, and get everybody registered. That means that we are going to be expecting a lot of discipline and transparency from the agents, supervisors, and the coordinators,” he added.
Mbah assured that President Bola Tinubu’s programmes and the benefits of his policies would percolate to the grassroots more in the days ahead.
“If you look at some of the programmes and policies of the government, particularly the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme, it is a programme designed to empower over 8.8 million people directly. Of course, if you talk about the indirect effect, you will be talking about 40 million people that this programme is designed to lift out of the pit of poverty.
“So, if you talk about stabilising the macro indicators and we are worried and concerned about when that will percolate to the micro levels, the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme is the answer because that is going to have a direct effect on our grassroots and lift our people out of poverty,” Mbah assured.
In their remarks, the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the APC, Chief Emma Eneukwu, and the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Enugu State chapter of the APC, Dr. Ben Nwoye, said the aim of the e-registration was to digitalise the party’s database and bring it up to 21st-century realities and needs.
Eneukwu said, “The party has been doing registration before now. But this time, the party is trying to copy what Governor Mbah is doing, just like there are now Smart Schools and Smart everything in Enugu.
“The e-registration is abandoning the old way of doing things. This time, we decided to behave like Peter Mbah by embracing the modern world where everything is going electronic.
“The most important thing is that we know politics is all about power and the acquisition of power. When you have registered, we can have the number of people that have the power and ability to vote in the election because you have to provide your NIN.”