Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi has said that former President Muhammadu Buhari couldn’t have emerged as the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 without the support of Bola Tinubu.
Ajayi stated this in a post on his X handle while reacting to the claim by the former Secretary to the Government for Federation, Boss Mustapha that Buhari won the 2015 election because of Buhari’s popularity and his 12.5 million Bloc bites.
Mustapha had this to say at the launching of Garba Sheu ‘s book on Wednesday in Abuja: “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 have 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.”
Ajayi, however, said Buhari had his 12 million captive Northern votes, yet he lost three presidential elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011.
He stated: ‘Let’s even leave the general election that the then General Buhari won to become president in 2015.
“There is no way he would have won the election to be president without first becoming the presidential candidate of his party APC.
“General Buhari would not have won the APC primary election at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, in 2014 without President Tinubu, who mobilised the APC governors and the South West delegates to move Buhari’s way.
“Former SGF Boss Mustapha did a disservice to our recent history with that unnecessary glib at the book launch today.
“Every effort and support that made it possible for President Buhari to win should never be diminished.
“Buhari had his 12 million captive Northern votes, yet he lost three presidential elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011.”