Tinubu Delivered Decisive Votes for Buhari’s 2015 Win – Osita Okechukwu Counters Boss Mustapha

Former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has strongly countered claims by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, insisting that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu played a pivotal role in Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the 2015 presidential election.

Responding to Mustapha’s assertion that Tinubu did not make Buhari president, Okechukwu said the former SGF lacked the political context and firsthand knowledge of the alliances that shaped Buhari’s emergence, given that Mustapha was not directly involved in the core strategic negotiations of the time.

“The simple truth is that President Tinubu provided the premium, golden victory votes that clinched the presidency for Buhari in 2015,” Okechukwu declared in a statement on Thursday.

He argued that Mustapha’s perspective was limited to electoral arithmetic rather than the complex realpolitik that unfolded in the build-up to the 2015 polls. “My friend Boss Mustapha was not part of the inner circle when Buhari’s presidential journey began in 2003. At that time, he was with the ACN and did not witness the political bridge-building that eventually led to Buhari’s success.”

Recounting earlier elections, Okechukwu noted that Buhari was repeatedly shortchanged. He recalled that in 2003, their legal challenge at the Presidential Election Tribunal included Justice Sylvester Nsofor’s minority judgment, which questioned the credibility of the vote count.

“In 2007, one of the most flawed elections in Nigeria’s history, Buhari was again denied victory — a fact even acknowledged by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua,” he said. “And in 2011, when our proposed merger with Tinubu’s ACN fell through, Buhari lost once more. But when we finally succeeded in forming a united front with Tinubu in 2013, it led to the decisive votes that took Buhari to Aso Rock.”

Okechukwu said Tinubu had committed his political machinery to Buhari’s success long before the polls, and had informed allies like Atiku Abubakar and Rabiu Kwankwaso of his firm decision.

“I was there when we, the CPC delegates, were directed to negotiate solely with the ACN. We gathered at Chief Tom Ikimi’s residence in Maitama and insisted we would not deal with the ANPP or others. After intense negotiations and compromises, the APC was born in July 2013,” he narrated.

Concluding his remarks, Okechukwu emphasized that without Tinubu’s influential support base and his strategic alignment with Buhari, the electoral victory and the required national spread would not have been achieved.

“Without Asiwaju’s crucial supplementary votes, there would have been no two-thirds spread and certainly no victory,” he affirmed.