Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, says the merger that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013 gave former president Muhammadu Buhari the “important votes” needed to win the 2015 presidential election.
Onanuga spoke in an interview with Arise TV on Thursday to respond to remarks by Boss Mustapha, former secretary to the federal government (SGF), that the APC merger contributed only three million votes to Buhari’s victory in 2015.
The parties involved in the merger were the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP).
Mustapha said Buhari had garnered over 12 million votes consistently before the merger, which accounted for the bulk of the 15.4 million votes that he secured to defeat former President Goodluck Jonathan.
However, Onanuga said Buhari, despite his millions of votes, was “nowhere” in the south and needed ACN for the electoral “spread” necessary to win the presidential election.
The presidential spokesperson said ACN got Buhari the “important votes” in the south.
“It was clear to ACN, a very strategic arm of that alliance, that without additional support, there was no way Buhari could have won the election,” Onanuga said.
“Yeah, he was getting 12 million votes if you put all the 19 states together, but in the south, Buhari was nowhere. Buhari needed the spread. ACN had six.
“Buhari got the votes he needed in those six states. They may not be in millions, but there were important votes.
“He won in all those six states, and he got more than 25 percent. At the end of the day, he won in about 25 states, more than the constitutional requirement of 24 states.”
Onanuga added that Buhari “never forgot the help that Tinubu rendered to him” and that he would not have become president without Tinubu’s assistance.
The Cable
