The Presidency has responded strongly to recent remarks suggesting that no individual was solely responsible for Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as President, saying Bola Tinubu played a decisive role in Buhari’s political rise.
Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, made the statement following a comment by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, at a book launch in Abuja. The book was written by Garba Shehu, former media aide to President Buhari.
At the event, Mustapha argued that Buhari had a consistent base of 12.5 million loyal voters and the support of the legacy parties that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC), contributing another 3 million votes. According to him, this joint support base delivered the nearly 15 million votes that defeated former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 general election.
But Ajayi countered the narrative in a post on X, formerly Twitter, stating that Buhari’s eventual election victory hinged on first securing the APC presidential ticket, which he said was only possible due to Tinubu’s decisive backing.
He noted that without Tinubu’s efforts in uniting APC governors and rallying the South West delegates at the party’s 2014 primary held at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, Buhari would not have emerged as the APC candidate.
Ajayi reminded the public that Buhari had previously lost three elections despite his strong northern voter base, which showed that additional support was critical to his eventual success. “Buhari had his 12 million Northern votes but lost in 2003, 2007, and 2011. It was Tinubu’s influence that changed the game,” he wrote.
The debate has sparked wider speculation about internal divisions within the APC. Some observers point to the perceived silence of Buhari over the political activities of former Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai and former Attorney General Abubakar Malami, both alleged to be working against Tinubu’s interests. Tinubu’s loyalists have reportedly expressed unease over Buhari’s reluctance to caution these former allies.
The Presidency’s statement is being viewed as an attempt to reassert Tinubu’s influence in APC’s historical narrative as internal party dynamics shift ahead of future elections.
