Garba Mohammed
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, has revealed that the historic 2013 political merger that birthed the All Progressives Congress (APC) contributed only 3.2 million votes to the alliance that unseated an incumbent president in 2015.
Speaking in Abuja during the public presentation of “According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience”, a book authored by former presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu, Mustapha broke down the electoral math behind the APC’s landmark win. He explained that the coalition’s 3.2 million votes were added to Muhammadu Buhari’s consistent vote base of 12.2 million to secure the party’s triumph over then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
The merger, finalized in February 2013, brought together Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Bola Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Atiku Abubakar’s breakaway New Peoples Democratic Party (New PDP), as well as elements from the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Buhari later emerged as APC’s presidential flagbearer after defeating Atiku and several former governors during the party’s primary held in Lagos.
Mustapha, who was a key figure in the merger process and a former Deputy National Chairman of the defunct ACN, stressed that Buhari’s leadership and long-standing popularity were crucial to the success of the merger and the eventual election outcome.
“In early 2013, as the leader of the Congress for Progressive Change, President Buhari formally requested and supported the creation of the CPC Merger Committee,” he said. “We also had our own transition Merger Committee in the ACN, and there were similar efforts from the ANPP and elements of the ruling party through the New PDP. The endorsement and active participation of party leaders such as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff gave credibility and direction to the coalition.”
He added that the merger not only unified the political opposition but also set the stage for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent party in Nigeria’s history. “President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough,” Mustapha noted.
The former SGF emphasized that choosing Buhari as the APC presidential candidate in 2015 was not only a political gamble but a strategic decision based on data. “In the 2003 election against Obasanjo, Buhari polled 12.7 million votes. In 2007, he received 6.6 million votes, and in 2011 it rose again to 12.2 million. We looked at these figures during the merger talks and concluded that aligning with Buhari would give us a clear head start.”
He also acknowledged the different party strengths in terms of control over states, pointing out that although the CPC had only one state, the ACN had six, and the ANPP had three, the vote base of Buhari proved more valuable than control over state machinery. “When you sum up the total votes that gave us the presidency in 2015, the aggregate was 15.4 million. So what the other parties brought, apart from Buhari’s 12.2 million, was 3.2 million votes,” he stated.
Mustapha concluded that the decision to rally behind Buhari was both pragmatic and rooted in political reality, noting, “I do not intend to create any controversy, but I am saying that was the most realistic and strategic thing that we needed to do.”