The All Progressives Congress (APC) has inaugurated a taskforce to revalidate all youth and student support groups within the party with a mandate to ensure victory for the party in the 2023 general election.
National youth leader of the party, Dayo Israel, while inaugurating the taskforce made up of youths at the APC national secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday, noted that the taskforce has been mandated to coordinate the registration and revalidation exercise of all youth/student-focused and youth-led support groups into a recognizable structure strongly aligned with the objectives and strategic imperatives of the National Working Committee (NWC).
He noted that the revalidation of the affiliated youth and student support groups will be opened for a period of one month, starting from Friday, July 1, through July 31.
This, he said, will enable effective coordination, disciplined harmonisation of activities in alignment with the party’s goals, aid provision and accountability, as well as efficient management and enhanced operations.
The youth leader stated that to streamline the submission process and enable easy access, sorting, and verification, interested groups would be able to register digitally and submit all relevant documents and information required for the revalidation exercise from the comfort of their homes at www.youngprogessives.ng/supportgroups.
Israel said this way, groups across the country can participate in the process virtually, hence avoiding the additional burden or cost of facilitating the logistics of physical movement of personnel and sensitive data.
The taskforce has the former Kwara state commissioner for Information and former president of the Pan African Youth Council, Ben Duntoye, and deputy national youth leader of the APC, Hon. Jamaldeen Kabir, as co-chairs.
Chairman of the taskforce, Duntoye, said no politician who is serious about winning election will neglect the youths.
He stated: “Elections are won by the youths. On the day of election, who are the staff, police, military and more than 65 percent of those that come out to vote on election day are the young people. Hence, for the biggest and largest political party in Africa, it will not be out of place to go and mobilize the youth in readiness for the election.
“On behalf of our amiable leader, we want to thank you for the initiative to revalidate and register all important youth and student support groups in our great party. We want to assure you sir that we are going to do a great job. We are not going to disappoint you, we are not going to disappoint the NWC because the strength of this party is in your office and I can assure you that his excellency Senator Abdullahi Adamu will be proud of you.”
On his part, the deputy national youth leader of the APC, Kabir, promised that the taskforce will rally youths to repeat the 2015 and 2019 victories, “beginning with the presidential flagbearer, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, all 36 state governorship candidates both returning and new; all 109 senatorial candidates; house of representatives candidates and state houses of assembly candidates and ensure that we win overwhelmingly”.
Some of the criteria for the revalidation exercise of all affiliated youth support groups on the registration portal are: National Office Address for National Organizations, and Zonal/State address for zonal/state organizations; List of National, Zonal and State Executive; List of registered members of the groups, alongside contact details such as phone numbers and email addresses.
Other include: Constitution and bye-laws of the organization or group, Party membership cards and voters cards (PVC) of members of the leadership/excos, Attestation from two (2) guarantors who must be reputable leaders of the party, at state, zonal or national level and Recommendation from the youth leadership of the party in primary states of operations.