A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha Wednesday dismissed the claims by President Bola Tinubu that he made former President Muhammad Buhari president in 2015.
Mustapha stated this while delivering a keynote address at the launching of a book titled; “According to the President: Lessons from a presidential spokesman’s experience,” authored by former presidential Spokesperson, Garba Sheu.
He maintained that the merger only produced three million votes in addition to Buhari’s existing 12 million votes in the North.
TheHintsNews reports that in 2022 when the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was preparing for its presidential primary, Tinubu in far away in Abeokuta declared unequivocally that he made Buhari the President of Nigeria and nominated Professor Yemi Osinbajo as his running mate, and got Mr. Dapo Abiodun elected as Governor of Ogun State.
“If not for me talking to you today, Buhari would not have been president. It is over 25 years that I have been serving them. This one sitting behind me, Dapo Abiodun, he could not become the governor without me.
“Since the time we started with the Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and now, the All Progressives Congress (APC), I wanted to contest for president since those times,” Tinubu had said.
But Mustapha maintained that before turning to that presidency, it was important to recognise the former President’s role in reshaping Nigeria’s political trajectory.
He explained that in early 2013, as the leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Buhari formally requested and supported the creation of a CPC merger committee, part of a broader coalition-building process that brought together the ACN, ANPP, APGA faction, and elements of the ruling party through the breakaway “new PDP” group.
He categorically stated that Buhari’s endorsement and participation, along with other party leaders such as Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sherif, lent credibility and direction to the merger, helping to unify disparate party factions under the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mustapha added that the coalition-building paved the way for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent ruling party in Nigeria’s history.
He noted that Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough.
Mustapha stated: “I do not intend to stir up any controversy. The matter in 2013, was midwife to create a Buhari residency.
“Let us look at the statistics. In the 2003 election, it was the Obasanjo Buhari presidential contest where Buhari recorded 2.7 million. In the next election, he got 12.7 million votes. In 2007, it came to 6.6 million, it went back to 12.2 million in 2011.
“When we were conceptualising the merger, what will give us a headstart and obviously, it is at the back of our consciousness that the merger with the CPC, though it has only one state, the ACN has six states, ANPP three states, and when you sum up the total votes that gave us the presidency in 2015, the aggregate of the total votes was 15.4 million.
“So, basically, what we brought to the table after the merger outside the Buhari 12.5 million votes was three million.”