By John Ogunsemore
Lawyer and political commentator, Deji Adeyanju has faulted former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha for downplaying Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the opposition coalition’s role in Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as president in 2015.
Mustapha spoke on Wednesday at the Yar’adua Centre in Abuja, during the public presentation of a book, “According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesperson’s Experience”, written by former presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu.
The ex-SGF was apparently reacting to a 2022 comment made by then-All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential hopeful, Tinubu in Ogun State, that Buhari wouldn’t have become president without him.
Mustapha said Buhari already had 12 million existing votes and that the merger of the legacy parties that birthed the APC merely contributed three million votes to his victory at the 2015 presidential election.
He added that Buhari’s integrity and discipline contributed to his electoral victory.
Noting that Tinubu did not singlehandedly make Buhari president, the ex-SGF said, “When you sum up the total votes that gave us victory in 2015, the aggregate of the total votes were 15.4 million votes. So, basically, 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.”
Reacting in a Facebook post on Thursday, Adeyanju said Mustapha was trying to rewrite history.
He said, “The statement of Boss Mustapha yesterday that Buhari won 2015 election all by himself because he brought in 12 million votes is beyond delusional, it is an attempt to re-write history.
“The coalition won the 2015 election and not Buhari. Buhari was a serial loser like Atiku before the coalition happened.
“Almost everyone ganged up against GEJ to help Buhari win the election; from the PDP governors that defected to join the then coalition and PDP governors who didn’t leave the party to Tinubu, Atiku, Amaechi, Barack Obama, the naive citizens who believed Buhari and APC were going to change Nigeria, etc.”