By Eric Elezuo

The battle for supremacy between the camps of President Bola Tinubu and his immediate predecessor, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), took a dramatic turn last week as a former Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Boss Mustapha, dismissed the popularly held claims that President Bola Tinubu made Muhammadu Buhari president in 2015.

Buhari was in power between 2015 and 2023 when he handed over to President Tinubu, having defeated an incumbent following a coalition of likeminds led by many of the stakeholders in different political parties in the country at the time.

“The merger of the legacy parties merely contributed three million votes to his victory at the 2015 presidential election,” Mr Mustapha said.

Mustapha insisted that Buhari was already famous and had over 12 million votes in his kitty before the 2015 election, stressing that Tinubu did little to support the former president in his eventual emergency as Nigeria’s president.

The former SGF made his claims while delivering a keynote address at the launch of a book titled ‘According to the President: Lessons From A Presidential Spokesman’s Experience,’ written by Garba Shehu, a spokesperson for former President Buhari.

Mr Mustapha disagrees with that notion that President Tinubu was key to Mr Buhari’s ascension to power.

“President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough,” he said.

“In the 2003 elections, it was the Obasanjo-Buhari contest where Buhari recorded 2.7 million votes. In the next elections, he got 12.7 million votes. In 2007, it came to 6.6 million, then back to 12.2 million in 2011,” he said.

“Though the CPC had only one state, the ACN had six states, and the ANPP had three states.

“When you sum up the total votes that gave us victory in 2015, the aggregate of the total votes was 15.4 million votes. So, what we brought to the table, the other parties that were in the matter, in addition to Buhari’s 12.2 million votes, were 3.2 million votes,” Mr Mustapha said at the book launch.

The former SGF said the involvement of key figures such as President Tinubu and Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of Borno State, lent credibility and direction to the merger.

In a swift response however, the Presidency  punctured comments of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation on the contribution of President Bola Tinubu to the 2015 electoral victory of former President Muhammadu Buhari, describing the former SGF’s claims as a disservice to recent political history.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Tope Ajayi, issued a rebuttal via his verified X handle, @TheTope_Ajayi, stating that President Tinubu’s influence was pivotal to Buhari’s emergence not just as a presidential candidate but ultimately as president.

Ajayi faulted the assertion, saying it was an unfortunate and revisionist take on one of the most significant political shifts in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.

According to him: “Former SGF Boss Mustapha did a disservice to our recent history with that unnecessary glib at the book launch today.”

He stressed that regardless of the eventual 2015 general election, Buhari would never have stood as the APC’s presidential candidate without the intervention and influence of then-national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu.

He stated: “There is no way he (Buhari) 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.”

Ajayi’s insisted that President Tinubu played a central role in uniting the different blocs that formed the APC, and in securing support for Buhari across the South-West — a region previously elusive to the former military ruler.

He further pointed out that despite Buhari’s strong base in the North, which routinely gave him 12 million votes in previous contests, he failed in three presidential elections — in 2003, 2007, and 2011 — until the 2015 coalition galvanised new national appeal.

“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.”

Ajayi insisted that Tinubu’s role in achieving that milestone must be recognised for what it truly was — decisive.

“The 2015 election marked a watershed in Nigerian democracy, being the first time an incumbent president was defeated at the polls.

“APC’s victory was largely attributed to the strategic merger of major opposition parties — including Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP).”

Debates have sprung up in recent concerning the imput of Tinubu in the emergence of Buhari as Nigeria’s president in 2015 with the pro-Tinubu camp insisting that without Tinubu the possibility of Buhari becoming president was zero. This is considering that Buhari had contested on three consecutive occasions – 2003, 2007 and 2011 – without success.

The debate took a more accusing stand after officials in the Tinubu government began to castigate the erstwhile Buhari government as a ‘failure’, an assertion that has not gone done with the Buhari boys.

With the death of Buhari however, on Sunday, the debates may die a natural death.