No One Single-Handedly Made Buhari President in 2015

Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in the Buhari-led administration has stated that no one single-handedly made Muhammadu Buhari president.

This is as he denied on Wednesday that Buhari became president in 2015 as a result of the efforts of a specific All Progressives Congress leader.

Speaking at a book launch in Abuja, the former SGF stated that he did not wish to cause any controversy.

He claimed that Buhari already had over 12 million votes and that three million more had been added as a result of the legacy parties’ merger.

When Tinubu visited Ogun State in June 2022 to rally party members for the APC’s special presidential convention, he talked about his unmatched contributions towards making Buhari president. In his well-known declaration that it was his time to lead the nation, Tinubu made it clear that he had appointed Muhammadu Buhari as president, selected Professor Yemi Osinbajo as his running mate, and elected Mr. Dapo Abiodun as the governor of Ogun State.

Tinubu had explained that he was revealing the information for the first time because he felt compelled to speak.

“If not for me talking to you today, Buhari would not have been president. It has been over 25 years since I have been serving them. The one sitting behind me, Dapo Abiodun, could not have 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 have wanted to contest for president since those times.

This is me telling you, between my life and God Almighty, Buhari called me to be his vice president. He said because the first time he contested, he picked Okadigbo, flamboyant, Catholic, but Nigerians didn’t vote for him.

The second time, he picked another Igbo, Ume Ezeoke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him; that if he goes to bring the Pope to run as his vice, Nigerians won’t vote for him, but you, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my vice.

He knew all the calculations then favoured us, that was why he wanted me as his vice, but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party, after we brought in people from the PDP, Saraki now saw that those from the PDP will not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim, becomes the president and me, also a Muslim, becomes his vice, he won’t get the senate president and the senate president cannot also be a Muslim, that was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.

And I told them that I have a candidate who is a Christian that I can nominate so that the party will not break, that was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him (Osinbajo).

I was asked to submit three names: Yemi Cardoso, Wale Edun, and Yemi Osinbajo, but I said that if I submitted three names, it is like opening your door for a thief. They may add the fourth name and choose that one. So, I insisted on only one name. You are hearing this thing from me for the first time.

It is my time. I am educated, I am experienced. I have been serving you for a long time. Bring me the presidency, it is my turn. When Atiku was being flogged out of the PDP by Obasanjo, he ran to me for help, I got the ticket for him. Nuhu Ribadu came to me and I backed him.

It has been over 25 years now that I have been serving them.

This one sitting behind me, Dapo, can he say he can be the governor without me? We were together at the MKO Abiola Stadium, he was intimidated, they didn’t want to give him the party’s flag. I was the one who handed the flag to him. He knows that he cannot be the governor without the help of God and my support.

If not for me who stood behind Buhari, he wouldn’t have become the president. He tried the first time, he failed, the second time, he failed, the third time, he failed. He even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again; I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yorubas and he agreed.

Since he became the president, I have never got ministerial slots, I didn’t collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him, it is the turn of Yoruba; it is my turn. Please, stand by me, you delegates who are here from Ogun State, you shall not become delicates. Don’t be carried away by ‘he is our son’.”

However, during a lecture on “President Buhari’s Contribution to National Development,” the former SGF recalled how, in early 2013, while leading the now-defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Buhari had formally called for and backed the formation of a CPC merger committee. This was part of a larger process to build a coalition that included 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.

“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 All Progressives Congress 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 disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough”, said Mustapha.

According to the former SGF, who stated that he had no intention of stirring up controversy, Buhari brought 12.5 million votes to the table, while the combined votes of the merging parties gave him 3.5 million.

“Not only that, 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 midwife 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 12.5 million votes was three million”