Days after Abubakat Atiku emerged as the PDP' Presidential flagbearer, the circumstances which threw him up is still raising dust.

In a Facebook post, former News Agency of Nigeria, NAN Managing Director, Bayo Onanuga   states that 

Sokoto state Governor Aminu Tambuwal is "a tribal jingoist, a political hegemonist", and not a hero as PDP's National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu described him

 Onanuga accused Tambuwal of betraying his Rivers counterpart Nyesom Wike during the PDP's presidential primary

It will recalled that Tambuwal  stepped down for former Vice President Atiku,  and his withdrawal at the convention ground helped Atiku clinch the presidential ticket, leaving Wike in second place.

According to Onanuga, though Tambuwal was praised and called a hero by PDP national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, the governor isn’t.

"Tambuwal has destroyed his future chances of being a Nigerian leader or a future president”, he stated, adding that the former House of Representatives Speaker’s decision portrayed him as “a hegemonist”.

Onanuga said Tambuwal prevented Wike, his supporter in the 2018 primary, from winning and though the latter blamed Southern governors, “Tambuwal was the real culprit”.

His action showed that he only wanted power to remain up North, despite the campaign of power shift Southwards in 2023.

The publisher, currently the Bola Tinubu campaign spokesperson, said Tambuwal will in the coming years find it hard to defend his action.

He argued that the governor has been a beneficiary of Pan-Nigerian support as he got support for his speakership in 2011 when the position was zoned to the South-West.

In 2015, he reduced himself to a hegemonist, when he backed Yakubu Dogara for speakership against Gbajabiamila who had supported him in 2011, and advised the Sokoto governor to say goodbye to any national aspiration in the future and “remain an ethnic champion”.