Tinubu didn’t make Buhari president, says former SGF Boss Mustapha

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has firmly rejected claims by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that he was instrumental in making Muhammadu Buhari president in 2015.

Speaking against the backdrop of growing political shifts ahead of the 2027 elections, Mustapha, who served under the Buhari administration, insisted that Buhari already had a massive support base long before the All Progressives Congress (APC) was formed.

“President Buhari had about 12 million loyal voters, especially from the North, even before the APC merger,” Mustapha said. “What the party merger that Tinubu helped engineer did was add about three million extra votes—not make Buhari president.”

The remarks come as a direct response to a statement made by Tinubu during his 2022 campaign, where he famously asserted that without his backing, Buhari would not have won the presidency.

Mustapha’s comments are gaining attention amid widening cracks within the APC, with several of Buhari’s former appointees now defecting to a new opposition coalition, which recently adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as its official political platform ahead of the 2027 general elections.