‘Tinubu didn’t even support Buhari’s emergence as APC candidate in 2015’ — Lauretta Onochie

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

She said, “Every Lie Has An Expiry Date. Yesterday, The Lie That @officialABAT Made @MBuhari President, expired.”

Former Special Assistant to the President during the Muhammadu Buhari Administration, Lauretta Onochie, has joined the conversation putting the records straight about how President Muhammadu Buhari emerged as President of Nigeria in 2015.

Beyond the words of third party, the incumbent president, Tinubu, in the build up to his nomination had said in an Emilokan Yoruba declaration in Abeokuta that Buhari “tried it first time he fell, he tried it second time he fell, he tried it third time he fell”, adding that he could not have made it the fourth time, if not for him in 2015.

But in correcting the now over two-year-old assertion, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha put out the figures that clearly stated it was not possible for one of many parties that contributed only three million votes all together to come out and claim he made president, a Buhari that had consistently maintained 12 million votes singlehandedly.

Mustapha, who served under Buhari as SGF, declared Wednesday that the APC leveraged on the popularity of Buhari to win power from the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), contrary to insinuations that Tinubu made him President.

Mustapha said this at the public presentation of a new book titled, ”According to The President: Lessons From A Presidential Spokesman Experience,” written by Mallam Garba Shehu, former Senior Special Assistant to the President during the administration of Muhammadu Buhari between 2015-2023.

Mustapha, who admitted that the CPC controlled only one state while the APC was being formed, maintained that the votes that delivered victory for the APC came from the CPC and followers of Buhari.

He said, “The CPC had only one state then, but the important votes that gave us victory came from the CPC.

“We knew what we did to produce Buhari’s presidency.”

Joining the conversation on Thursday July 10, 2025, straight talking Lauretta Onochie, who is also former Chairman of the Board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), said Tinubu did not even support Buhari’s emergence as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014 let alone to be behind his winning the general elections.

Buhari – a two-term president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023 and earlier Military Head of State from January 1, 1984-August 15, 1985 – emerged the first presidential candidate of the APC in 2014 following the coming together in a merger of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2013.

After the merger had successfully taken off but buy before the general elections the New PDP joined the APC.

Reacting to the former SGF Boss Mustapha’s comment, Lauretta Onochie shared a front page of the Nigerian Tribune Newspaper with the headline: ‘Buhari’s popularity won 12.5 million votes for APC in 2014’, via her personal X account on Thursday, praising him for ending what she described as a “lie” about Buhari’s emergence in 2014.

Corroborating the Tribune’s headline attributed to Boss Mustapha, the former presidential aide said Tinubu did not make Buhari Nigeria’s President, adding that “every lie has an expiry date.”

She said, “Every Lie Has An Expiry Date.

“Yesterday, The Lie That @officialABAT Made @MBuhari President, expired

“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.”