Junaid Mohammed, a lawmaker in the second republic, has accused some leaders of Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political group, of making provocative statements.
In an interview with Independent Newspaper, he said the Yoruba leaders learnt no lesson from the Biafran war.
At least 2 million people reportedly lost their lives in the Biafran war which took place between July 1967 and January 1970.
Stakeholders in the south-west have recently raised the alarm over the high level of insecurity in the region.
Gani Adams, aare onakakanfo of Yorubaland, while reacting to the killing of Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of Reuben Fasoranti, leader of Afenifere, had said the Yoruba ethnic group should not be blamed if it decides to react to the killings in the region.
But Junaid described some of the Yoruba leaders as “noisemakers” who will be the first to flee if war breaks out.
“We have to be very careful and mind our utterances. It is easy to start a war but it is not easy to stop it,” he said.
“We all saw what happened during the Biafran war even though a lot of people who went through that experience have not learnt anything like some of the leaders of Afenifere. They have been making provocative statements in recent times.
“People’s lives are determined partly by their culture. These people are noisemakers and if there is war today, they will run away because most of them have houses outside the country. They make big, big noise but some of the real fighters who will fight until death don’t even talk about it.
“We shouldn’t allow these lousy people to lead us to war. War is not good. I want Nigerians to be careful because if the chips are down, these people will not be available to fight. They are calling for war, let the war starts and we will see who will run first.”
TheCable
