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Kampala — Dr. Raheem Tajudeen, the general secretary of the Global Pan African Movement is dead.
According to one of his best friends, Gulu LC V chairperson Norbert Mao, Tajudeen died at around 1:00 am in a motor accident while rushing to Jomo Kenyata international air port.
His flight to Rwanda had been set for 3:00 am.
He was a New Vision columnist for more than ten years. He has also been a lecturer at Makerere University.
Obituary
Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem who died in a tragic car accident on his way to Jomo Kenyatta airport, Nairobi, in the early hours of 25 May was a pleasant, colourful and larger-than-life figure. Many will remember his smile and great charm and the gap in his front teeth which gave his smile a special quality.
He was more than one thing - a consummate conversationalist, a thoroughbred intellectual, a dedicated father, a comrade and a fighter for people's rights - but above all else he was the frontline carrier of the pan-Africanist banner.
History has a way of throwing up ironies. And Taju's death - on Africa Day - is one of them. Death robbed Africa of Dr. Abdul- Raheem Tajudeen Africa's famous columnist on African issues read by millions in Africa and globally in different media houses including The New Vision.
Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a Nigerian national, was based in Nairobi, Kenya where he was conducting his work of the all Africa Conference of Churches, one of the Campaign's key partners in the global project to promote the Millennium Developments Goals in Africa.
Gulu LC5 Norbert Mao one of his great friend says Tajudeen's death has robbed Africa of a pan African who was so resourceful.
The late joined the Millennium Campaign in March 2006 as the Deputy Director for Africa after serving as the Director of Justice Africa, a non-profit organization based in London.
Mao says his death was a big blow on the millennium Development Goals since his contributions will be missed.
Tajudeen holds Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford university and was appointed the General Secretary of the Pan African Movement Secretariat in Kampala, Uganda.
He was acting deputy Director Africa for United Nations Millennium campaign that meant to ensure that civil society voices continue to be hared in the global effort against poverty and injustice.
David Mafabi who worked with the late describes him as a man who was so passionate of his continent
The late was Chairperson of the Centre for Democracy and Development, based in Abuja and Lagos; and of the Pan-African Development Education and Advocacy Programme based in Kampala and Abuja.
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I first got to know Dr. Tajudeen in the mid-1990s in Germany during a series of lectures he gave under the auspices of the University of Trier Centre for European Studies. We met again in November 2007 at the Bonn Conference for International Development in his capacity as the African representative of the UN MDGs. Beyond his great academic achievements and outstanding public service, my week long interaction with him revealed one of his many qualities to me - how to care and how to share. His untimely death has robbed the continent of one of the most dedicated voices for the African cause and our course towards responsible governance, equity and social justice, and freedom from want and abject penury. My condolences goes to his family, those who had worked closely with him over the decades, and all of us in the wider Pan-African family.