Tinubu Did Not Support Buhari’s Candidacy In 2014, Ex-Presidential Aide Lauretta Onochie Claims

Former presidential media aide, Lauretta Onochie, has claimed that President Bola Tinubu did not support the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the party’s convention in 2014.

Onochie, who served as Special Assistant to President Buhari during his administration, made the assertion on Thursday in a post on her verified X account, referencing recent remarks by Boss Mustapha, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) under Buhari, which she said debunked long-standing narratives around Buhari’s rise to power.

“Every lie has an expiry date,” Onochie wrote. “Yesterday, the lie that @officialABAT (Tinubu) made @MBuhari President, expired.”

She added: “Thank you, Boss Mustapha, for puncturing the lies of those unsuccessfully trying to rewrite history. Me: Tinubu DID NOT even support Buhari’s emergence as candidate in 2014. Fact.”

The former presidential aide attached a front page of the Nigerian Tribune newspaper with the headline: ‘Buhari’s popularity won 12.5 million votes for APC in 2014’, highlighting Mustapha’s recent comments.

Recall that at the public presentation of “According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman Experience”, a memoir by former presidential spokesman Garba Shehu, Mustapha emphasised the pivotal role played by Buhari’s personal popularity in securing victory for the APC in the 2015 election.

According to Mustapha, “The CPC had only one state then, but the important votes that gave us victory came from the CPC. Buhari’s popularity won us 12.5 million votes.”

This statement contradicted the widely held belief that Tinubu, a key figure in the 2013 merger that birthed the APC, was instrumental in Buhari’s emergence and electoral success.

LEADERSHIP reports that the ruling APC was formed in 2013 from a coalition of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) , Buhari’s political base.

While Tinubu’s role in mobilising the Southwest and leading the ACN bloc of the merger was undisputed, Onochie and Mustapha’s recent statements appeared to challenge narratives that ascribe Buhari’s presidency solely to Tinubu’s political support.