Buhari Wouldn’t Have Won APC Primary If Not For Tinubu — Presidency

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tomitope Ajayi, has stated that former President Muhammadu Buhari would not have secured the All Progressives Congress presidential ticket without the pivotal support of President Bola Tinubu.

Ajayi’s remarks follow comments made by the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, during a book launch authored by Mallam Garba Shehu, former Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on media and publicity.

At the event, Mustapha asserted that no single individual was responsible for Buhari’s emergence as President.

Mustapha highlighted that prior to the 2015 elections, Buhari commanded a loyal following of 12.5 million votes, while the legacy parties that formed the APC contributed an additional three million votes.

This combined strength, he said, resulted in the approximately 15 million votes that enabled Buhari to defeat then-incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Responding via his X handle @TheTope_Ajayi, Ajayi criticized Mustapha’s comments, describing them as a distortion of recent political history.

“Let’s even leave the general election that then-General Buhari won to become president in 2015. There is no way he would have won the election to be president without first becoming the presidential candidate of his party, APC,” Ajayi stated.

He further emphasized that Buhari would not have clinched the APC primary at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, in 2014 without Tinubu’s intervention.

According to Ajayi, Tinubu was instrumental in rallying APC governors and South West delegates to support Buhari’s candidacy.

Ajayi added: “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.”

The comments by Tinubu’s aide have fueled speculation about a possible rift between President Tinubu and his predecessor, Buhari.

Some political observers point to the actions of Buhari loyalists—former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, and the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN—as evidence of growing opposition to Tinubu within the APC.

It is reported that some of Tinubu’s supporters are concerned that former President Buhari has not intervened to restrain el-Rufai and Malami, who are alleged to be opposing Tinubu’s re-election efforts.