The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has strongly refuted claims suggesting that Tinubu played no decisive role in Muhammadu Buhari’s rise to the presidency in 2015.
Addressing recent remarks attributed to former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Onanuga maintained that the narrative had been deliberately twisted. Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS, Onanuga clarified that Mustapha’s comments at a public event had been misrepresented, adding that anyone familiar with the political dynamics of 2015 would understand Tinubu’s central role in Buhari’s eventual victory.
Onanuga stated, “Without Bola Tinubu, there was no way we would have had a Buhari presidency in Nigeria.”
He added, “What he (Boss Mustapha) was saying was that the whole issue about the alliance, the merger at that time, that the ACN, which was the principal part of the alliance, it had six governors at that time, the CPC of President Buhari only had one governor, and then the AMPP was part of the merger, I think with three or four governors, and then the APGA, was also part of the alliance. The ACN, from 2011, they had seen the possibility that if all these forces come together, they could win the presidency.”
He further explained that while Buhari had a consistent following in the North — pulling 12 million votes in both the 2003 and 2011 elections — he lacked the national spread necessary to meet constitutional requirements for victory. The ACN’s presence in the South-West was vital in bridging that gap.
Onanuga also noted that talks between Tinubu’s ACN and Buhari’s CPC began as early as 2011, after Buhari lost the presidential election once again. That loss, Onanuga said, underscored the need for a broader alliance, prompting Buhari to finally consider a merger, which led to the formation of the APC.
“Buhari was returning, in the 2003 election, they returned 12 million votes. In 2007, when votes were repressed all over the country by Obasanjo’s INEC, Buhari returned 6 million. But in 2011, he made another 12 million votes. So it was clear. ACN then started talking to Buhari in 2011, before that 2011 election. Buhari did not listen. He thought he could go all alone. He went into that election, and he failed.
“So after that election, then they reopened talks. Said, ‘you see, you cannot win this thing alone.’ You need some kind of alliance. It was clear to ACN, a very strategic arm of that alliance, that without support, without additional support, there was no way Buhari could have won an election. Yeah, he was getting 12 million votes, if you put all 19 states in the north together, 12 million votes. But in the South, Buhari was nowhere.
“Buhari needed spread. ACN had six states. Six states. So if you look at the result of that election, he got the votes he needed in those six states. They may not be in millions. But they were important votes. He won in all those six states, and he got more than 25%. So at the end of the day, he won in about 25 states, more than the constitutional requirement of 24 states. So that was how he won.”
Onanuga also recalled that Buhari himself, during and after his time in office, consistently acknowledged Tinubu’s contributions.
He said, “Buhari himself, as president, even out of office, he never forgot the help that Bola Tinubu rendered to him. He never forgot it, because he knew that without that alliance, without Bola Tinubu being in the picture, there was no way he could have been president. There was no way. It was so clear. So all these things people are talking about, turning things, twisting things, they’re just merely mischievous.”
Melissa Enoch
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