Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party e-Membership Registration Committee, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has declared that the party was undergoing an all-inclusive process of rebranding itself in order to conform to global best practice of political participation.

Dokpesi who made the declaration during the official flag off of the e-registration exercise in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State, on Friday, explained that while not drifting from the ideals of the founding fathers, part of the objectives of the project was to return the party to its members, many of whom belonged to the younger generation and were attuned with modern trends.

He said: “This is the age of the social media, not even the traditional media. The people that are going to be voters, they don’t go and watch television; they don’t listen to the radio. They are just busy on their social media and it is what somebody posts, true or false, that is what he knows.

“So, you can say on your TV one thousand and one things, the younger ones don’t have access to it. And if you say you must return the party to these younger ones, you must be in the position to lead them. And the surest way you can lead them is through the biometric registration, to be able to have their contacts and be able to interact with them.”

Dokpesi also noted that a critical part of the biometric registration, which was being managed by an IT firm, E-connect Technologies Limited, was to eliminate the challenge of godfatherism or sponsorship of the party by a few during election campaigns, as each member can contribute funds to the party by virtue of his or her membership.

“They (registered members) will contribute their own quota, so you don’t have to look for a godfather. You can imagine if you pay your N100 every month. For six million members, that the PDP at one time said it had, that would have been N6 billion in one month, N72 billion in a year. So, why are you looking for a godfather?”

He noted that the electronic registration would return the party to the ideas of the founding fathers.

He also urged all interested Nigerians and existing members of the party to avail themselves the opportunity of being part of the rebranding process across the country to return “power to the people”.

“When in August 1998, we said PDP, Power to the People. That means power resides with the people; it is the people that decide. But we now have a PDP where a group of people, when they get together, they determine who the governorship candidate is.  They determine who the governor is, taking away the power from the people.”

He added: “PDP, as you can see, has become a party of old men. We have to return the party to the younger generation. The times of the Anenihs of this world, of the Shehu Shagaris, of the Adamu Ciromas of this world, of the Babangidas and Raymond Dokpesis of this world have come and gone.

“This party will collapse if we do not encourage the younger ones and give them opportunity. After all, Shehu Shagari, became a federal minister at the age of 18, (Richard) Akinjide became a minister at the age of 21; M. T.  Mbu became an ambassador at the age of 20. Just all of them had the opportunity to get involved. They didn’t say they were too young then.