The Presidency has asserted that former President Muhammadu Buhari could not have emerged as the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in 2014 without the decisive support of President Bola Tinubu.
This was stated by Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, in response to remarks by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha who l claimed during a book launch for Mallam Garba Shehu, ex-presidential spokesman, that no single individual was responsible for Buhari’s rise to the presidency.
Citing Buhari’s long-standing voter base, Mustapha noted that the former president had consistently commanded 12.5 million votes prior to 2015, while the legacy parties that merged to form the APC contributed about three million more, resulting in the nearly 15 million votes that secured victory against then-President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, Ajayi, writing on his X (formerly Twitter) handle @TheTope_Ajayi, dismissed Mustapha’s comments as a “distortion of history,” insisting that Buhari would not have secured the APC ticket without Tinubu’s backing.
“Let’s even set aside the general election. Buhari could not have won the APC presidential primary in 2014 without Tinubu’s intervention. He needed to win the ticket first,” Ajayi said.
He credited Tinubu with rallying APC governors and delegates from the South West to support Buhari at the party’s convention at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
Ajayi emphasized that despite Buhari’s consistent support base in the North, he lost three consecutive presidential bids in 2003, 2007, and 2011 before aligning with Tinubu’s political machinery in 2015.
Meanwhile, political analysts have noted a perceived rift within the APC, citing the activities of Buhari-era figures such as former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai and former Attorney General Abubakar Malami, SAN, as evidence of resistance to Tinubu’s re-election ambitions. Supporters of the President are reportedly concerned over Buhari’s silence in reining in both men.
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