On May 25/2009, Africa Liberation Day Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was tragically killed in a senseless car accident in Nairobi while on his way to the Airport for a journey to Kigali.

Dr Tajudeen Abdul Raheem visited Rwanda on several occasions after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi when he was General Secretary of the Global Pan African Movement.
On his last day he was coming to Rwanda as Coordinator of the UN Africa Millennium Campaign.

Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was recognised for his outspokenness and strong leadership in campaigning for global justice, good governance, public accountability, human rights, democracy, regional integration and Pan Africanism.

His Pan Africanism and commitment to human rights and democracy were shaped by his personal experience of fighting successive military dictatorships in Nigeria (his native country), and he was forced into exile in the UK and lived and travelled widely in other African countries.

For more than 2 decades, Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem has been engaged in leading African civil society organisations and social movements across the continent and in the Diaspora.

I know him since 1994 during the 7th Global Pan African Congress held in Kampala in April (03-08), which we attended among many other delegates from many countries around the World.

He was the organiser of the Congress and was elected General Secretary of the Global Pan African Movement (1994-2006). I have since met him at many occasions both in Rwanda and abroad.

Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was one of the leading proponents of Africa’s Liberation. We will follow his call especially that of the 7th Pan African Congress: ’Don’t agonise, Organise!’

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Dr Medard RUTIJANWA heads the Pan-African Movement - Rwanda Chapter.