2023 Presidency: Don’t go for Moslem/Moslem ticket, HURIWA warns APC
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has applauded the All Progressives Congress (APC) for transparently conducting its National Convention which resulted in the election of a former Lagos State governor and a former Senator, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The decision of the APC delegates and the APC Governors from the North, excluding Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, to give it’s presidential candidate to Southern Nigeria is salutary and it has the potential of dousing the tension that has emanated from the National Convention of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ) that led to the emergence of a Northern muslim in the person of Atiku Abubakar, which is travesty of justice because it is inconceivable that one section of Nigeria should dominate the political firmament of country.
HURIWA has however warned the APC never to contemplate committing the national suicide of selecting a Moslem Vice President to run together with Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu to avoid throwing Nigeria into a religious crisis, in the event that APC wins the main election.
APC’s election of a Southerner as its presidential candidate has restored national unity in Nigeria, in as much as expectations remain that the Southeast deservedly should produce the President of Nigeria, come 2023, the coming of Tinubu as a candidate in APC is not totally bad.
Even with the election of Tinubu by the APC, the burning desire, national zeal, and the phenomenal momentum behind Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party are still unquenchable. So patriots from across Nigeria, North and South, still have the opportunity to elect the best from among all the presidential candidates.
It is the expectation of the Nigerian youths that INEC must be impartial, neutral and transparently ready to conduct free, fair and accountable election. Anything short of these could lead to a civil war in the 2023 election because Nigerians will not accept the same kind of Election robbery that took place in 2015 and 2019. It would be recalled that former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, has been announced the winner of the APC primary elections.
On May 30, 2022, HURIWA had warned the All Progressives Congress, APC, against picking a Northerner as its presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.
This warning came against the backdrop of the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a Northeasterner, as the presidential candidate of the main opposition, PDP, on Saturday.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it believes that picking another northerner to battle Atiku in the presidential race would totally destabilise the peace and unity of Nigeria.
The group, therefore, warned the APC to move against picking a northern candidate and make a southerner its presidential flagbearer in the spirit of fairness and to preserve the unity of Nigeria.
HURIWA said it is now incumbent on all Nigerians to ensure that the President of Nigeria returns to the South and Preferably to the South East.
The rights group said judging from antecedents, the former Governor of Anambra State is remarkably qualified to be elected as President of Nigeria for equity, National cohesion, unity and progress of Nigeria.
HURIWA stated that to most Nigerians, both Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu are two sides of the same coin, made up of old breed politicians that have destroyed Nigeria totally.