Boss Mustapha: APC merger gave Buhari only 3m votes in 2015

Boss Mustapha, former secretary to the federal government (SGF), says the opposition parties which were part of the merger that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013 contributed only three million votes to the 15.4 million secured by former President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 elections.

The parties involved in the merger are the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP).

Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at the launch of Garba Shehu’s book, ‘According to the President: Lessons From A Presidential Spokesman’s Experience,’ the former SGF admitted that the coalition-building paved the way for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent ruling party in Nigeria’s history.

Buhari defeated former President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 elections after the opposition parties came together to form the APC.

Mustapha noted that “President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough.”

“In the 2003 elections, it was the Obasanjo-Buhari contest where Buhari recorded 2.7 million votes. In the next elections, he got 12.7 million votes. In 2007, it came to 6.6 million, then back to 12.2 million in 2011,” he said.

“Though the CPC had only one state, the ACN had six states, and the ANPP had three states. When you sum up the total votes that gave us the presidency in 2015, the aggregate was 15.4 million.

“So, basically, what we brought to the table after the merger outside the Buhari 12.5 million votes was three million.”

Although the former SGF referred to two 2007 elections in his speech, there was only one general election that year.

Mustapha said the involvement of key figures such as President Bola Tinubu and Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno, lent credibility and direction to the merger.

“His endorsement and participation, along with other party leaders such as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sherif, lent credibility and direction to the merger, helping to unify disparate party factions under the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC),” he said.