He was to Africa what Che Guevara was to South America
MIDRAND, South Africa- It is 4.30a.m. I have been tossing in the bed for the last two hours. I had just been having a chat with Brian Kagoro and Thomas Debe at this Town Lodge Hotel, much of the talk about Dr. Tajudeen Raheem.
We retired to bed early in readiness for the celebration of African Liberation Day with the Pan African Parliament, on May 25. Then shortly after 4.30a.m., a text message came in. Dr. Tajudeen is dead in a car accident. My answer to the message was, 'please this is not April Fools day!' But another text came in, 'yes he is dead!'
That is how my Monday morning began. A group of us were gathered to meet with the Pan African Parliament (PAP), a body that Tajudeen had so much wanted to have legislative powers so that it could speed up the integration of Africa; a continent that was so close to Taju's heart.
Twice, the Parliament gave a minute's silence in remembrance of an African icon; a man who knew every single leader on the continent; a man who never minced his words, even in the face of the most ruthless dictators, like his former President Sani Abacha who had wanted to kill him. Many people thought that Taju was Ugandan. So when word came through that his remains were being flown to Funtua, in Katsina State, north-western Nigeria, that is when it dawned that he actually was more Ugandan than Nigerian. And that was precisely because he had lived most of his life in Uganda as Secretary General of the Pan African Movement.
A man bigger than his size, he was the only man who knew everything about this continent. Each day he had a new idea and for many his charm, deep laughter and humour that weathered the souls of even the most stone-hardened individuals, made Taju a man of all people.