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PEOPLES DAILY WEEKEND, SATURDAY 21 - SUNDAY 22, DECEMBER 2013
Opinion
Lar: Shepherd boy destined to shepherd his people By Stephen O. Bamigbele
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angtang – The sleeping town in the North of Plateau State never saw such a mammoth crowd of mourners. It was a harvest of tears, wailing, shouting and some jostling to touch the casket containing the remains of the illustrious and begotten son, the only Iroko tree in their forest, Chief SolomonDaushep Lar arrived for final burial. Thousands of mourners including President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, former Head of State Rt. General Yakubu Gowon and his wife, General T.Y. Danjuma former Minister of Defence, the Senate President and a host of leading PDP politicians led by the Chairman Alhaji BamangaTukur,captains of industry and members of various professional organizations were there to bid him their optimum farewell. Chief Solomon Lar was an erudite, astute and extra-ordinary politician that remained a titan and formidable bridge builder that linked the North and the South for many years so that Nigeria could remain a united entity. He saw tribalism as the biggest obstacle that could hinder the unity and progress of the country.
Chief Lar believed in “politics without bitterness.” He once said “I don’t believe that for one to be successful in politics, you have to kill your brother or your friend. So, also, to struggle for a high office by the use of force indicates meanness of spirit. I will never besmirch by political opponent.” Chief Solomon Lar started from a humble beginning as a rustic Sheppard Boy in a small Taarok community near Langtang, rearing his family’s flock. One day, he took this writer through his grazing route beginning from his farm house where he showed me a light wooden bed on which he slept without mattress. As a dashing upright and enterprising young man, he came into limelight when he was appointed a Junior Minister in the office of the late Prime Minister Alhaji TafawaBalewa. In 1966, the military overthrew the government of Alhaji TafawaBalewa in a bloody coup that claimed the lives of many leading politicians and top military officers. All the ministers who survived the coup went into hiding. The day after, I saw a taxi cab parkednear my office window with someone beckoning to me to come. It was my friend Solomon. “Take me to your house now,” he
ordered. My house was just 100 yards away to my office. After narrating his ordeals from Lagos to Jos we started to monitor the situation in the country through my radio, telephone contacts. One day after our meal Chief Lar, speaking with all seriousness, asked “where do I go from here? After a deep thought, I suggested that he should try and enroll in Nigerian Law School – then in Lagos to study Law. Although he bought the idea but we discussed the implications and the challenges involved.” We all agreed that he should go to discuss the issues involved with other friends and relations. At that time, his wife, now Professor Mary Lar, was the Principal of the Government’s
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Girls Secondary School, Soba in Kaduna State. Chief Lar was given free accommodation for his family for the duration of his stay at the Law School Lagos by the present Shoun of Ogbomosho Oba OyewunmiJagungbade. After his graduation he set up a Law Chambers in Jos and groomed his son the late Barrister Stephen Lar to takeover when he went into politics and joined the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP). The late chief became a close Political Associate of the Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe the leader of the NPP whom he acclaimed to be his hero. Chief Lar detested ethnic chauvinism that could destroy the unity of the country. He was
Chief Solomon Lar was an erudite, astute and extra-ordinary politician that remained a titan and formidable bridge builder that linked the North and the South for many years so that Nigeria could remain a united entity.
in enigma, icon of emancipation, an extra-ordinary peace maker and bridge builder. The last public appearance of Chief Solomon Lar was sometime in September this year when he and Professor Jerry Gana led a delegation of Middle Belt Elders to President Jonathan to protest the non-payment of compensation to those whose churches and houses were burnt, during the April 2011 postpresidential election. Before his body was committed to mother Earth, President Jonathan paid glowing tributes to Solomon Lar who, he said, went into politics not to make money but to serve his people and emancipate them. Professor Mary Lar, his widow, told the gathering that before the demise of her husband, he held her hand and gave messages to Nigerians, Taarokcommunity, Plateau people and the PDP to remain as one. Chief Solomon Lar was dynamic, untainted and a political giant. He had taken his position among the very greatest before he died. Adieu S.D. You fought a good fight. May your soul rest in perfect peace. Bamigbele is former Associate Editor,New Nigerian Newspapers,Kaduna.
NASS and constitutional reform By Austin Asadu
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ecently, a distinguished panel of constitutional scholars, legal experts and technocratic avatars gathered to brainstorm on the modalities and mechanisms of delivering a holistic constitutional reform process that would encompass the whole gamut of the Nigerian, social, political, cultural, religious and economic experience. This conference of Nigerian legal/constitutional apparatchiks had the likes Dr. Ishaya Habu, Dr. B.E. Mijah, Prof. B. Baker and Barr Oshunkoya based mainly in the Diaspora e.g. U.K, Canada, the U.S, South Africa & Hongkong converged in London to produce an academic journal titled: ‘Constitutional Reform in Nigeria: Issues, Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities’ and dedicated to Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, the Clerk of the National Assembly. This book explores ‘the legal framework of constitutional development in Nigeria, with special attention to topical issues from a legal standpoint while bringing together selected random thoughts, ideas and opinions of ordinary citizens on the review process. This approach gives the opportunity to review the outside feel of the citizens on the review process’.
The contributing academic scholars and editorialists observed that: ‘in August 2010, this unwavering and undaunted administrator and visionary was made Clerk to the National Assembly of Nigeria. The gentleman had told his principal officers that he was only just beginning. And as part of the strategies for providing the critical support services and infrastructure for effective legislation, he reengineered the bureaucracy of the legislature focusing on human capital resource development, infrastructural development and the re-orientation of the work ethics of the staff of the National Assembly’. Moving to the critical issue of constitutional reform, the scholars, whose views do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CNA, posited thus: ‘to ensure effective participation by the people, the Parliament and the mechanism for the review of or making of the constitution must accommodate the involvement of people at all levels who devote time to the process to deliberate on the content of the constitution. Parliament in the conduct of the process and in order to ensure that people participate in the process, should write and receive memoranda (oral and written), organize focused group
discussions, organize debates, conduct the business of the review process in local languages and also widely publicize the process to attract widespread participation’. They advised that ‘Parliament must act on the side of the people to ensure that the composition of the constitution making body reflects existing diversity such as language, religion, gender, ethnic groups etc. Where such diversity or any other manifestation of diversity is not reflected, the final document cannot claim to be ‘democratic, legitimate and reflective of the views of the majority of the people’. They observed that another vital role which parliament is expected to play in relation to the people in the process of constitution making is to ensure
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that the process is transparent and open. There should be no ‘no-go areas’ ad no hidden agenda’. Also in order to ensure authenticity, parliament should ensure that the product of the process is annotated, published and widely distributed among the populace’. Accountability is another critical element in the process of constitution making, it requires that periodic report is made by the constitution making body to the parliament, or to the people as the case may be. On autonomy, Parliament was advised to play the role of ensuring that the body and process of constitution making is autonomous of and not dependent on government. Such a body as well as the process must also
Accountability is another critical element in the process of constitution making, it requires that periodic report is made by the constitution making body to the parliament, or to the people as the case may be.
be independent of government control. Parliament should enact an Act establishing the body and legitimizing the process. Such an Act should insulate the body and entire process from governmental control and influence legitimacy. It is the place of Parliament to ensure that whatever constitution the people will have to live under and obey enjoys popular recognition and acceptance. As part of the role of Parliament, there should be a national referendum to test the popularity and acceptability of the draft constitution. Such a draft constitution should enjoy at least 51% percent votes consenting to its suitability and adoption, they urged. As a whole the book, ‘Constitutional Reform in Nigeria Issues, Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities is quite instructive, illuminating, timely, insightful and thought provoking and is indeed required reading for our policy makers, legislators, administrators, constitutional scholars, experts and the general public as the country contemplates another round of constitutional review, amendment, reform and national dialogue by whatever name ascribed. Austin Asadu, a public Affairs analyst, sent in this piece from Garki, Abuja