Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has pushed back against claims that a single political figure was solely responsible for Muhammadu Buhari’s historic victory in the 2015 presidential election.
Speaking at a book launch in Abuja, Mustapha made it clear he wasn’t out to stir up controversy, but said the facts must be acknowledged — Buhari’s rise to the presidency was not the work of one man.
According to him, the former president had always commanded a consistent voter base of over 12 million people long before the 2013 merger that birthed the All Progressives Congress (APC). He emphasized that it was the collective strength of the legacy parties—CPC, ACN, ANPP, and a faction of APGA along with the breakaway “New PDP”—that eventually delivered the knockout punch to the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
His remarks directly counter earlier statements made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2022, who, while campaigning ahead of the APC presidential primaries, declared that Buhari’s presidency was largely made possible by his personal efforts. Tinubu had recounted, in detail, how he helped persuade Buhari to run again in 2015 after multiple failed attempts, and how he sacrificed his own ambition to nominate Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate. “If not for me,” Tinubu famously said, “Buhari would not have been president.”
But Mustapha’s version of events paints a broader picture—one of strategic collaboration rather than solo heroism.
“President Buhari brought 12.5 million votes to the table, while the merger of the legacy parties added an additional 3 million votes,” Mustapha said. He added that Buhari’s longstanding political appeal, national stature, and clean image were central to the coalition’s success.
“Let’s not forget,” Mustapha continued, “Buhari had recorded millions of votes in every presidential election since 2003. When the merger was conceived, it was not just about helping him win — it was about uniting the opposition under one banner, and Buhari became the face that could drive that unity.”
Reflecting on the complex merger that gave birth to the APC, Mustapha acknowledged the roles played by other powerbrokers such as Tinubu and Ali Modu Sheriff. “Their contributions gave direction and legitimacy to the process,” he admitted, “but no one person delivered that victory alone.”
He also recalled that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which Buhari led, controlled only one state at the time, while ACN had six states and ANPP three. The idea behind the merger, he said, was to harness Buhari’s loyal voter base and combine it with the political machinery of other opposition parties.
“The total votes in 2015 came to 15.4 million,” Mustapha explained. “That means outside of Buhari’s core base, the merger parties added only about three million. It was a collective effort, not a coronation.”
While trying to avoid a political minefield, Mustapha’s remarks have reopened debates around who truly deserves the credit for Buhari’s win in 2015 — a pivotal moment that ended 16 years of PDP dominance and reshaped Nigeria’s political history.
In the end, Mustapha urged stakeholders to focus less on who made Buhari president and more on the lessons of unity and collaboration that made that electoral victory possible.
