The man Solomon Lar

Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, one of Nigeria’s veteran politicians, was born 80 years ago in Plateau State, North Central. A teacher and a lawyer by training, Lar had his elementary education in Langtang and Gindiri before he went to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) from 1966-70 and Nigerian Law School, Lagos in 1971.



As a politician, Lar held various political offices at the state and national levels for over 50 years of his life time. He was elected as a councillor to the Langtang Natives Authority in January 1959. In December of the same year, he was elected to the Federal Parliament on the platform of United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC). He won re-election in 1964. From then until January 15, 1966, when General Yakubu Gowon took power, he was Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He was also a Junior Minister in the Federal Ministry of Establishments.

It was after the fall of the First Republic that he went to ABU to read Law. Apart from establishing a private legal practice, he co-founded and became the first national secretary of the Nigerian Legal Aid Association. He was a member of the Constituent Assembly of 1977–1978, which produced the 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic. Lar was the vice-chairman of the panel headed by the late Justice Ayo Irikefe that recommended the creation of more state from 12 to 19 during the regime of Generals Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo.

In the Second Republic, Lar was a co-founder of the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP). He won the governorship election in Plateau State as the first Governor of the state on 1 October 1979. His deputy was Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma. In 1983, Gen Muhammadu Buhari toppled the Alhaji Shehu Shagari administration, and dissolved all political structures, including those in the state.

Lar joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the aborted Third Republic. He was later appointed Minister of Police Affairs by the late General Sani Abacha. He, however, resigned when he realised that Abacha was working to transmute into a civilian president.

At the inception of the Fourth Republic, Lar emerged as the first National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998. He held this position until 2002 when he handed over to Chief Barnabas Gemade. In February 2004, he resigned as chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, handing over to Chief Tony Anenih at a caucus in Abuja

He remained a force in the PDP until 2005, when he pitched his tent with Vice President Atiku Abubakar at a moment when he fell out with President Olusegun Obasanjo. He went ahead to openly support Atiku’s bid for the Presidency in 2007. In April 2006, Lar also welcomed the decision of former Military President, Gen Ibrahim Babangida to compete for President in the 2007 elections, saying that in a democracy anyone was entitled to run.

His critics described him as a Middle-Belt irredentist. In Plateau State, he championed a policy based on the idea that the state should help indigenes realise the benefits of their “emancipation” from Hausa domination, and that the centuries-old Hausa and Jarawa communities in Jos and Yelwa should be relegated to non-indigene status. In an interview in February 2009, he said that the Middle Belt was being neglected despite the great contributions it made to national unity, a reference to sacrifices in the Nigerian Civil War. In February 2010, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him Chairman of the Presidential Committee tasked with recommending how to prevent further violence in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.

At political gatherings and all events for that matter, Lar usually stands out in his trademark cap which rises higher than other peoples and slightly tilted backwards. Also, his white handkerchief equally makes him noticeable.