Professor Mary Lar retired from the University of Jos and she is also a former Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Netherlands. She is the wife of the pioneer national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the late Chief Solomon Lar. In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, she speaks on political life of her late husband, how the family has been faring since Lar’s demise, her late husband’s political associates and other issues.
QUITE a lot of people are of the opinion that with the death of Chief Lar, the disciples he left behind are scattered and in disarray in terms of ideology. What is you take on this?
If we are to follow our national anthem seriously and think over the aspect which says the labour of our hero past shall not be in vain, we are supposed to uphold it and push it forward. I will call on those in government and those outside the government that we are all people of one nation. We should see ourselves as one and be able to push this legacy which our hero past had laid. After all, nobody will live in this world forever and everybody will come and play his or her role and go. I am appealing to those in government to make everybody have sense of belonging. Once we are leaders, we are leaders over all. Let us embrace that and put it into practice. I strongly believe that by this, we shall make a difference and there will be no killing. We are experiencing all these ills in our society today because the love is not there. We need to love one another, appreciate one another.
Chief Solomon Lar had quite a lot of political associates and disciples when he was alive. Are these associates and disciples still in touch with the family?
You cannot expect everybody to come round to visit the family. But there are few that are really concerned. Some came to assist when I took ill. In fact, if not for them, as we all know Baba didn’t keep a penny for himself, he gave it out to everybody that was in need. God is using some of them to take care of us and there are those who don’t want to come near as if they will be imprisoned if they come near us.
People have been talking about Lar’s legacies. Can you just mention a few of them?
They are too many. When I looked at the whole thing on the Internet I couldn’t finish reading it. By then, it was Plateau and Nasarawa when he saw that he was handicapped by money he went out to see if he could get foreign loan which he used to the last kobo to build hospitals, schools, roads and others. I almost shed tears when I started reading on the Internet about his achievements. If he had done two terms, it would have been wonderful. Some people then were against him but he pushed on, remained focused. Those that were accusing him for going out to borrow later saw what he did with the money. He did not take a kobo out of the loan.
Where were you when he took a letter to the former military dictator General Sani Abacha? Did you just allow him to do that or you were privy to the arrangement?
I was shocked when I attended the funeral of one of our leaders and somebody there said it was not Chief Lar who took the letter to the Head of State then, that it was somebody else, I was shocked because I knew how it happened. We prayed and I packed his medicine because the then Head of State called him and after he delivered the letter. Abacha asked him to come back on a certain date so maybe he would determine his fate then. So, I packed his cloth and medicine and told him if you end there, die well and we prayed and he was about to leave. I left for the University of Jos because I was a lecturer there and when I came back, I saw Baba still around. I asked him what happened and he said Abacha was dead gone and I said this was strange and said ‘God, did you do that to save my husband.
With all that, he was bold and happy. He did that for the good of the people of Nigeria. To him, democracy meant sacrifice. He was not afraid of what Abacha would do to him. And for me now to hear that the courage was done by other politician, I was shocked. I think leaders have a big responsibility by showing good example to our young ones who are coming up so that they would know that it is good to always stand for the truth and when they stand on it.
With the legacies of Chief Lar still dotting every nook and cranny of Plateau State even up to the present day Nasarawa State, there is no edifice named after him. The Plateau State University named after him by the former administration in the state has turned out to be just a mere pronouncement. Are you not disturbed by this?
There are those who made quick pronouncement that they were going to name Plateau State University after Baba because he had worked so hard for Plateau people. But at the end of it all, we kept on asking what the matter is? None of them could come up with any reason, except some people who said they were the ones who set up the university so the university should be named after them. So, if that is the case it means all the work that Baba did should be named after him, there will be too many to name after him. But whatever it is, ask them as a journalist. The reason is best known to them. And they are not thinking of what to do to immortalise him anymore. As a family, the reward from heaven is what we want.
Baba was the pioneer national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, but today things are no longer what they used to be in the party. What is you assessment of the situation?
It is very sad. Young ones are asking me ‘where is the PDP Baba teamed up with others to establish?’ What is lacking today is that people don’t want to dialogue. They want things done from their point of view and we don’t consider others. When people are full of selves, things cannot move as expected. We need to bow down and listen. That is another of Baba’s legacy. He listened to people a lot and know how to blend their views into whatever views he had so that it will be acceptable to the people and to him. We pray to God to give them the wisdom to be able to understand one another and continue to dialogue. But this division is confusing the young people; the young ones don’t even know where to go again. We need a strong political party that has love for people not selfish people who want to be president or leaders for themselves. We want people who will consider the citizens and work for them rather than being so selfish because it selfishness that is causing the division.
Are you disappointed with the way things are in the PDP?
Yes, I am disappointed. They are not considering the citizens. They are considering themselves. Anything that self is much in will not proper. But if you consider the people that you are carrying along, then it will go well. Dialogue is the answer. Talk to the people, reason along with others. This will go a long way in addressing most of the issues on ground. Find out people’s view and go by it. This is very important.
Politicians of today play money politics and try to acquire property and wealth in a corrupt way for the fear of tomorrow. This was not the way, according to observers, politicians of old, including your late husband viewed politics. Is the family regretting today that Lar did not steal state funds?
Sometimes, my children will say Baba didn’t build a house for us in Abuja and now we are asked to leave because the owner of the house wants to repair his house and give it out at a more expensive rate and certainly we will have to leave. This, to me, is a credit to him. Baba would say I was not elected by the size of the house I have. I was not elected because I have so many cars. It is me they elected and I have done my work and leave it. You children you have received education and grow up, go and build your houses the way you want it.
and then