Solomon Lar: An Icon Of Selfless Politics By: GARBA YEDIMAKUDON on October 29, 2013 - 5:05am I must confess, I cannot lay much claims to knowing or having been very close to the late Chief Solomon Daushep Lar as to do a detailed reconstruction of his life and times. But I have followed very closely his politics since the Second Republic when he was Governor of the old Plateau State. I however had the opportunity of meeting the Walin Langtang twice between 1999 and 2001 while I was the Plateau State correspondent of the Punch newspaper. Nigeria had barely returned to democratic rule and Lar was then National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Both encounters, in company of other journalist colleagues, were at his Langtang country home and Jos residences respectively. Usually, whenever the elder statesman and astute politician was in town, his media linkman and now Executive Secretary of Solomon Lar Foundation ( SLF), Mr. Major Ezekiel Adeyi, himself a former correspondent of the Punch in the state, would facilitate a chat between his principal and journalists to enable them seek clarifications and his takes on burning issues in the polity. However, this write-up is not a reminisce about those encounters with the octogenarian who died on Wednesday , October 9 at 80 years old, but will rather dwell on this enigma and quintessential politician’s involvement and contributions to political emancipation and struggle of the Middle Belt region. This is without prejudice to his enormous contributions toward the enthronement of the current democracy, his role in the G-34 which confronted the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha and many other political accomplishments. Lar had in the last three decades or so, remained the issue and the undisputed arrowhead of the Middle Belt struggle and politics after the demise of the region’s charismatic leader, J.S. Tarka. Lar’s name within those years became synonymous with the Middle Belt Forum (MBF)— the political rallying point for ethic nationalities in the Middle Belt, created to raise political education and consciousness, articulate and expound the ideals and aspirations of the ethnic groups for separate political and cultural identities distinct from those of the Hausa - Fulani speaking North. The Forum was formed to agitate for equality, justice and fairness within the context of being a part of the entity called the North and the Nigerian nation at large. In addition, the MBF was expected to fight and expose all forms of discrimination, marginalization and domination by the Hausa-Fulani against other ethic groups especially those not conquered during the Shehu Usman Danfodio- led Fulani Islamic Jihad and who incidentally accepted and embraced European Christian missionaries in their domains albeit to the discomfiture of the Lord Lugard’s indirect rule colonial government which would have preferred otherwise. There however still exist some ethnic nationalities who, though not conquered by the Jihadists, accepted the Islamic religion but still prefer to remain with the Middle Belt struggle in order to safeguard their cultural identities and dignity. It is noteworthy to state here that the struggle for separate identity for the ethic groups of the Middle Belt became stronger in the late 1950s especially during and after the agitation for Nigeria’s independence from Britain in Tiv land, in present Benue State, with the quest for a Middle- Belt state out of the Northern region. The Tiv and other nationalities, especially those from the old Kwararafa Kingdom had at that time protested the Hausa-Fulani hegemony in Northern Nigeria where the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto’s Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) dominated the political space in the region. The NPC was accused of promoting policies aimed at assimilating other ethnic groups in the region. But Tarka made a clarion call and the nationalities answered with a loud voice and refused to be so assimilated so as to maintain their identity. In order to actualise the aspiration, Tarka and other leaders of the nationalities among them, Lar, formed the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC), the political platform on which politicians from the nationalities contested and won elections into both the Northern Nigeria House of Parliament and the Federal House of Representatives in Kaduna and Lagos respectively. Tarka and Lar were among the Federal parliamentarians in Lagos in 1959. While at the Federal House, the UMBC went into an alliance with the Action Group (AG) of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo to lead the opposition to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s NPC/ NCNC Federal Government of the First Republic. Tarka and the leadership of the UMBC’s decision to go into the alliance was in furtherance of the UMBC’s opposition to the NPC Government in the North. It was also to give the agitation for the creation of a middle belt state national support. However, on January 15, 1966 the military sacked the Balewa government in a coup d’etat led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu. Upon Nigeria’s return to party politics in 1978, Lar still with a burning desire and resolve to emancipate the people, participated in the formation of the defunct Nigeria People’s Party (NPP) with late Dr. Nnandi Arzikiwe, even though the UMBC leader, Tarka, for reasons which still remain debatable pitched his tent with the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), a party seen as an off-shoot of Sardauna’s NPC which the UMBC had copiously accused of discrimination, marginalization and domination among others against the ethnic nationalities of the North. Through concerted political lectures, vigorous awareness campaigns and mobilization, Lar galvanized the people of the old Plateau State (now Nasarawa and Plateau) to vote for him as Governor in 1979. Tarka on the other hand lost the NPN Presidential primaries to Alhaji Shehu Shagari. He however succeeded in installing the late Aper Aku as Governor in Benue State after a controversial victory over Wanteregh Paul Unongo of the NPP. The Walin Langtang’s decision to join the NPP was strategic as events later showed. The 1979 elections did not give the winner of the presidential poll, Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s party, the NPN majority seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In addition, the NPN also won in only seven out of the then 19 states. The states were Sokoto, Bauchi, Benue, Niger, Kwara, Cross- River and Rivers . The NPN therefore, needed to partner with one of the four political parties in order to have the needed majority in the National Assembly. The party went into an accord with the NPP which had won in three states namely Anambra, Imo and Plateau with a sizeable number of Federal legislators. Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), which had won in five States of Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Lagos and Bendel opted to remain the main opposition party in the National Assembly. Lar used his position in his party to advance the cause of the middle belt in the Accord as three Middle Belt politicians were made ministers in Shagari’s Government. They were, Unongo (Benue State-Steel Development), Dr. Paul Mishullum (Gongola State – Health) and Mr. Samuel Mafuyai(Plateau State- Aviation) The Accord did not however last long due to some irreconcilable political differences, among them the attempted deportation of Abdulrahaman Shugaba by the NPN government, the impeachment of Alhaji Abubakar Balarabe Musa, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) Governor of Kaduna State by the NPN dominated House of Assembly and the appointment of Presidential Liaison Officers to the States. The NPP consequently asked its members in the cabinet to resign which they did. But it suffices to say that the wisdom which informed Lar’s support for the Accord showed his strategic thinking and political shrewdness as the Accord was used to advance the struggle of the middle belt. It is pertinent to state at this point that through out his struggle for the emancipation of his people, Lar did not exhibit any traits of hatred or discrimination against the Hausa- Fulani or Islam. This could be attested to by his politics of peace, accommodation, love and bridge- building across all political and religious divides. The late former Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi had remained Lar’s intimate political associate up to the time Rimi died. The former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar,the Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Alhaji Lawal Kaita and several others though Hausa- Fulani and Muslims, were Lar’s political soul mates. In fact Lar’s acceptance of the title of Wali which is viewed as an insignia of Hausa-Fulani feudalism only speaks volumes of his broadmindedness. There is no doubt therefore that like the Apostle Paul in his second epistle to Timothy in chapter 4 verse 7 said he had fought a good fight, finished his course and kept the faith, Lar also fought a good fight and kept the faith as far as the Middle Belt struggle and political emancipation of his people and other Nigerians were concerned. And he did so without being selfish or enriched himself. He was too generous and compassionate. He was indeed a man of the people and the people were always with him wherever he went politically. The challenge now is for the other leaders of the Middle - Belt to rise and fill the vacuum created by Lar’s departure. And there are enough leaders to step into Lar’s shoes. The need for mobilization of the people to be more active politically in the current dispensation cannot be over emphasized because the problems and issues which informed or brought about the Middle Belt struggle are still prevalent today. Poverty, unemployment and lack of commensurate political patronage at the Federal and State levels still pose serious threat to the emancipation of the Middle Belt nationalities despite their numerical strength and potentials middle belters are spread across most states of the north-from Adamawa to Kebbi, Bauchi to Kwara, Taraba to Niger, Gombe to Kogi, Benue to Kaduna and Plateau to Nassarawa . The Prof. Jerry Gana leadership of the MBF should be a wake to its responsibility now more than ever before to unite the people irrespective of their religious inclination but on the basis of their being citizens of the Middle Belt. This is so because an impression has created, though wrongly, that MBF has become a Christian association. Today many Ebira, Igala, Idoma, Gbagi, Nupe, Chamba and Jukun among other citizens who practise Islam, have distanced themselves from the mainstream Middle Belt struggle. This must be addressed promptly. That, if done will surely increase the political strength of the region as it has shown that once in strategic alliance with other nationalities as done in 2011 with the South – South, under the aegis of Congress for Equality and Change (CEC) which gave President Goodluck Jonathan victory, the Middle Belt could become the beautiful bride of Nigerian politics and decide where the political pendulum swings to. — Yedimakudon can be reached on garbayedimakudon@gmail
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 04:27:39 +0000
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