Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu didn’t singlehandedly make Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) President in 2015.
Mustapha spoke on Wednesday at the Yar’adua Centre in Abuja, during the public presentation of a book, “According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesperson’s Experience”, authored by former Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The event was attended by high-profile politicians including former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume; former governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi; former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and many others.
Tinubu had during his visit to Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, on June 1, 2022, to seek the support of delegates ahead of the presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said Buhari wouldn’t have become president if not because of him.
He said, “I have been there from the days of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), through the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and which eventually metamorphosed into the APC. I have served for over 25 years and helped many achieve their political ambitions.
‘Your governor, Dapo Abiodun, could not have become governor without God and my support. If not for me that stood solidly behind Buhari and encouraged him to go ahead, he could not have become president.”
But delivering a lecture on President Buhari’s contributions to national development, Mustapha said Tinubu didn’t singlehandedly make Buhari President, stressing that many other leaders of the APC contributed.
He also said Buhari’s integrity and discipline contributed to his election in 2015.
Mustapha added that some of the reforms embarked upon by the Tinubu administration including the tax reforms were started by the Buhari administration.
He said in early 2013, as leader of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Buhari had formally requested and supported the creation of a CPC merger committee, part of a broader coalition-building process which brought together the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) faction, and elements of the ruling party through the breakaway “new PDP” group.
He said, “We also had our own transition Merger Committee, the ANPP, and a fraction of others. And elements of the ruling party, through the breakaway New PDP group, his endorsement and participation, along with other party leaders such as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ANPP lent credence, credibility, and direction to the merger, helping to unify disparate party factions under the banner of the APC.
“That coalition-building paved the way for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent ruling party in Nigeria’s history. President Buhari’s integrity, national stature and discipline were central to that breakthrough.”
The former SGF further said, “For us in the ACN, I do not intend to stir any controversy, but I will make bold to state this, that the merger in 2013 was midwifed to present a Buhari or create a Buhari Presidency because we looked at the statistics of the votes that were coming to the table.
“In the 2003 election, it was the Obasanjo/Buhari presidential contest where Buhari recorded 2.7 million votes. 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 conceptualizing the merger, what would give us a headstart and obviously, it was at the back of our consciousness that the merger with the CPC, though it had only one state, the ACN had 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’s 12.5 million votes was three million.”
