A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, has described the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, as rude and crude.
Akinyemi also said it was not true that delegates to the 2014 National Conference collected N7 million each as allowance.
Reacting to statements credited to Lawal, Akinyemi, who was the Deputy Chairman of the 2014 National Conference organised by the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said it was crude and rude for the SGF to refer to participants at the conference as “boys”.
In the statement, Akinyemi said: “At the conference, there were various judges of High Courts, 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 and presiding were a former Chief Justice of Nigeria and a former Minister of External Affairs.
“My own upbringing, diplomatic and scholar’s disposition will not allow me to yield to the temptation to call Engineer Babachir 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. To have referred to them as boys is rather unfortunate.”
Lawal had referred to the delegates as “boys” in a recent interview published in several newspapers.
He described the “intemperate language” of the SGF as “crude, rude, offensive and unbecoming of the high office of state he occupies”.
Akinyemi also said the delegates did not get N7 million each as allowance as alleged by Lawal.
Bolaji Akinyemi to SGF: You are rude, crude
By NAN
