Once again, it is time to memorialise the late Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, the go-getting, multi-faceted Nigerian activist who died in a car crash in Kenya in 2009. All roads would be leading to Abuja May 24th, 2017 when friends, comrades and activists would be marking the eight anniversary of his death around the theme of “Democracy in Africa: Trends and Challenges”. Last year, the theme was on rural banditry, an issue he had anticipated and dealt with in his analysis of Africa many years ago.
Dr Taju was a Deputy Director with the United Nations when he died. He went over to the UN job after several years of being a key organiser and driver of contemporary Pan-Africanism in addition to being a voice for gender emancipation and democratisation in Africa.
A Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University where he obtained his PhD, the late Dr Taju attended Bayero University, Kano in Nigeria. He is the author of the activist paradigm which enjoins people to organize rather than agonise. He was jokingly regarded as “the first African president” because, except Nigeria perhaps, he was welcomed and treated basically as such across Africa
