Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, the promising politician, whom many had hitherto seen as the next big thing in Nigerian politics, is now entangled in the web of deceit and betrayal; and the cause of this is unbridled ambition founded on juvenile trust in another overtly ambitious politician, Bukola Saraki. Prior to his eventual defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it has been gathered that Tambuwal had come to terms with his slim chances of winning 2019 presidential election based on paucity of fund required for such a project; he therefore decided to concentrate on winning another term as governor.
The mind changer for Tambuwal was the point he allegedly reached out to Bukola Saraki who prodded him on and charged him to go ahead with the presidential aspiration, promising he would bankroll his (Tambuwal’s) candidacy. Without much ado, Tambuwal jettisoned his re-election quest as he got instantly swayed by Saraki’s sleek style of politics and threw his hat into the ring without further consultation with his backers at home. Seen that he has decamped and boldly been taking swipes publicly at President Muhammadu Buhari, Saraki baptised Tambuwal with flame of betrayal when he (Saraki) himself publicly declared to take a shot at the topmost political office in the land, thereby leaving Tambuwal in the lurch.
Tambuwal had become Speaker in 2011 through a series of events perfected in perfidy. He once again exhibited treachery when he connived with some forces to truncate Femi Gbajabiamila whom he had promised to support. Tambuwal would make a U-turn and threw his weight behind Yakubu Dogara against Gbajabiamila who had rallied round supports for Tambuwal’s ascendancy to the Office of the Speaker. There is no downplaying the fact that he brought some panache never seen to the Office of the Speaker. His magisterial compartment and conduct saw him through series of surreptitious machinations engineered to topple him and dwarf his rising profile.
Not a few analysts believed that Tambuwal would not heed ventriloquist voices nudging him to run for president. Quite a number of people believed that he would bring his calmness to bear on such calls and rather seek a second term as governor in 2019. But ambition can be so consuming such that it blinds and deafens anyone driven by when it becomes unbridled. Only time will tell if he has not committed political hara-kiri with his present situation, as his defection has not received massive support from his home state as over 200 of his appointees refused to join and immediately resigned from his cabinet while some of the political juggernauts instrumental to his becoming governor have taken their stand with President Buhari re-election project.
