The National Conference organised by President Muhammadu Buhari’s predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, in 2014 is now a subject of controversy between the Federal Government and its promoters-cum-participants.

Following comments by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal reportedly describing the confab as ‘job for the boys,’ the Deputy Chairman of the summit, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, chided the Federal Government for using what, according to him, was intemperate language.

Similarly, Jonathan, in response to an enquiry sent to his Twitter handle yesterday said there was no way the conference would have been a jamboree, especially as ‘respected eminent statesmen participated in it.”

The former president in his tweet to The Guardian said: “A conference with respected eminent statesmen like Lamido Adamawa, former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Idris Kutigi and Gen. Ike Nwachukwu among others cannot justifiably be described as job for the boys. Not at all!”

In a statement he sent to the media yesterday, the former Foreign Affairs minister said he found the language in which Lawal’s views were couched to be “crude, rude, offensive and unbecoming of the high office of state he occupies.”

The National Vice Chairman (South West) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olorogun Eddy Olafeso, also condemned the SGF over his comments on the conference.

Olafeso, who addressed journalists in Akure yesterday, said he was “quite surprised that someone highly placed in the All Progressives Congress (APC) will come up with extreme vituperation on national issues that border on the existence and survival of the country.”

Local reports early in the week had quoted the SGF as saying that “the government has not taken a decision on the 2014 National Conference” and that the exercise was “essentially diversionary” and unnecessarily expensive at the time.

He added: “I understand that some Nigerians want it implemented but the government has been too busy with key areas of governance to talk about an exercise that we thought was essentially diversionary and a sort of, maybe, a ‘job for the boys,’ because if you remember, it was reported that almost everybody in the committee got N7 million, and we consider it essentially as job for the boys.

“They probably produced a document that is good and commendable, but I mean, this government is too busy with very more vital areas of governance, and we are not intending to spend our time reading reports. The exercise of governance is not about reading reports. The reports are here, so many volumes that for example, it would take me like seven days to go through.”

But Akinyemi, in a statement hit back at Lawal, saying it would be uncharitable to describe a conference involving first-class emirs, former Senate presidents, retired judges, professors and former governors, among others as ‘job for the boys.’

His words: “My attention has been drawn to the attack launched on the 2014 National Conference,” he said. “As a matter of principle, since the end of the conference, a conference which I had the privilege and honour of serving in my capacity as the Deputy Chairman, I had refrained from playing an advocacy role vis-à-vis the position of this government as regards the Report of the 2014 Conference.

“But my attention has just been drawn to the interview granted by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, published in several national papers on June 27, 2016.

I have no quarrel with the SGF reiterating the opposition of government to the 2014 National Conference. But I find the language in which his views are couched to be crude, rude, offensive and unbecoming of the high office of state he occupies.

“He (the SGF) referred to the delegates as “boys.” Boys? Among the delegates are the Emir of Ilorin, the Lamido of Adamawa, King Alfred Diete Spiff, the Gbong Gwom of Jos, Emir of Yauri, Emir of Dutse, Emir of Askira, the Amanyanabo of Nembe, various judges of the High Courts, Boys!

Delegates included a former Chief of Defence Staff, a former Chief of Air Staff, three former Foreign ministers, a former Inspector General of Police, two former Senate Presidents, a former SGF, several former ministers, several SANs, several former governors, professors etc. etc. etc.

“Presiding over the conference was a former CJN and a former Minister of External Affairs. My own upbringing and diplomatic and scholar’s disposition will not allow me to yield to the temptation to call Lawal by the name his own choice of words has reduced him to.

“Most of the delegates there were people who had paid their dues, served this country in high and exalted positions, risked their lives in the civil war and other domestic insurrections and showed exceptional excellence in the performance of their duties, obviously more excellence than Lawal had demonstrated in his one year in office.

“In the same interview, the SGF was quoted as saying, ‘it was reported that almost everybody in the committee got N7 million.’ Come on Mr. SGF! Grow up. You have been in the office that funded the conference and you have been there for over a year, and all you need to do is to send for the files to know that what members were paid is much less than N7 million per member. You do not have to depend on rumours or “dem say”.

“Frankly, I will not plead for the Report of the Conference to be considered by your government. Governments come and governments go. The problems will remain. We will all be judged by whether we were part of the solution or part of the problems.”

Akinyemi had in an exclusive interview he granted The Guardian early in the week, admitted that the outcome of the conference was not perfect — as is the case with all human endeavours — but insisted that Nigeria remained work-in-progress which each generation would face and come up with its own compromise solution.

“Even till today, the United States that was formed in 1776 is still work-in-progress, not to talk about Nigeria that was put together in 1914. It cannot be perfect; it has to be work-in-progress and each generation would face that work-in-progress and come up with its own compromise solution, which 50 years down the road, the next generation would have to address and come up with their own.”

He said Jonathan showed courage in summoning the conference because there was no guarantee that it would not break up. “I was in the middle of it, and I know what I am talking about. It was a risk, a high-wired risk.’’

The Political Science professor added: “Since we tend to think now in terms of six geopolitical zones; even though this is not in the Constitution, any particular zone could have walked out. It was not only the North that threatened to walk out. I know how many meetings held behind the scene, I know how many interventions by the chairman and the deputy Chairman behind the scene to make sure that nobody walked out.

“The first petition to the chairman was by the South West against the deputy chairman. But at the end of the day, we had over 600 resolutions adopted by consensus — no voting, no dissent. It was by consensus — 600 resolutions. I have all the volumes; they are out there in my library.

“I appeal to the president to seize this opportunity and learn a lesson from the fantastically calamitous steps that Cameron took that has now led to this (Brexit); let him learn a lesson from this, let him be on top of the game, and not leave things to chance.”

Lashing at the SGF, Olafeso said: “And that you as the SGF, an engineer, a former national vice chairman of a party, will come up and just destroy the entire efforts of Nigerians is so very sad and unfortunate. For us, we want the president to succeed because if he succeeds, Nigeria must have taken a positive step forward.

“But for people around him to throw stones at all efforts to rebuild our country, leaves so much to be desired. We are very unhappy,” he said, lamenting that Lawal also criminalised the PDP because they were in power for the last 16 years. That is also the reason they have been hunting the PDP.”