2023 - It'll be the end of a united Nigeria – HURIWA warns the APC against electing a candidate from the north.

HURIWA, the Nigerian Human Rights Writers Association, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) against nominating a Northerner as their presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.

The announcement of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a Northeasterner, as the presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Saturday prompted this caution.

HURIWA's National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, warned in a statement that choosing another northerner to run against Atiku in the presidential election will completely destabilise Nigeria's peace and unity.

In the spirit of fairness and to maintain Nigeria's unity, the group cautioned the APC not to pick a northern candidate and instead choose a southerner as its presidential flagbearer.

"Should APC yield her ticket to the North, it consequently foreshadows the end of Nigeria as a single country," HURIWA warned.

After seeing the PDP's decision, Nigerians are excitedly awaiting the outcome of the APC's presidential primary in the first week of June.

Atiku received 371 votes from delegates, defeating his closest rival, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who received 237 votes.

"There is no longer any basis for anyone to preach unity in Nigeria when the South-East is politically marginalised and the North insists on producing the President of Nigeria for 16 years if another northerner is produced in APC after President Muhammadu Buhari, who is from Katsina State in the North-West," HURIWA said.

HURIWA encouraged the APC to "provide its ticket to the South-East or at least the Southern region in order to preserve Nigeria's unity; otherwise, if the APC moves north like the PDP, it will be a vote of no confidence in Nigeria's continued existence."