Show only tabBar items, hide rest of its' tabBarController view programmatically ?

Hello, I've created a UITabBarController programmatically with 3 tabBar items. When I tap on another view, a new tabBarController is pushed on to the view with the tabBar items, as I want. How can I show only the tabBar items (not the rest of its' view) with a tap on the other view ? I would like to see only the tabBar items appear on the previous viewController with a tap. As, I don't have a viewcontroller to work with on the storyboard, is it possible to do this programmatically ?

Thanks very much in advance.