The permanent scar
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- Category: Tribute
- Written by Ambassador Onoja
- Hits: 1645
Gentlemen and Ladies, I just came back from the late Dr Tajudeen Abdulraheem’s burial in Katsina State and if I had not seen it all myself, I wouldn’t have believed it. The death of Tajudeen on Monday morning of May 25, 2009 on his way to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi will remain a permanent scar to Pan-Africanism and intellectual dynamism of the highest order. I was to speak to him but put the engagement off till this week in the folly and grossly limited insight and understanding of man, but this was not to be.
I stood motionless, bewildered and lost in my imagination at the airport wondering whether I was travelling or what business took me there at that hour, but reason said I was waiting to receive the corpse of one of Africa’s biggest minds and great addicts of the African cause.
One of the most surprising things about the late Tajudeen and I was that we had never met one-on-one as I was away in Lagos for a visa interview at the German Embassy while he remained my guest in Abuja for our three-day MDGs Week event. The late Tajudeen remains glued to me on phone and internet based on the report people gave about my leadership as the NYSC MDGs CD President for which he was very impressed about my person, including what he saw on the ground. He had promised to see me when he is in Nigeria again having missed an opportunity for us to meet in Lagos on transit. Ever since then, we had remained in touch like two friends who grew up together while my hope of meeting this great man grew by the day. Now, all that is history! I am bitter but I’ve found solace in the cause which he died for - Pan-Africanism, development, light for those in darkness, freedom and emancipation of the world, the poor and the weak and service to humanity with an overall goal of making our world a better place. For all of us who claim to know, love or were close to him, we must walk that way. Only then can our testimony be true.
Dr. Tajudeen Abdulraheem, you were a great man indeed! Please rest in perfect peace, amen. Taju was a great man who was here and we knew he was indeed here. How will you let your world know you were here?
Articles
The permanent scar
Category: Tribute Written by Ambassador Onoja Hits: 1645
Gentlemen and Ladies, I just came back from the late Dr Tajudeen Abdulraheem’s burial in Katsina State and if I had not seen it all myself, I wouldn’t have believed it. The death of Tajudeen on Monday morning of May 25, 2009 on his way to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi will remain a permanent scar to Pan-Africanism and intellectual dynamism of the highest order. I was to speak to him but put the engagement off till this week in the folly and grossly limited insight and understanding of man, but this was not to be.
I stood motionless, bewildered and lost in my imagination at the airport wondering whether I was travelling or what business took me there at that hour, but reason said I was waiting to receive the corpse of one of Africa’s biggest minds and great addicts of the African cause.
One of the most surprising things about the late Tajudeen and I was that we had never met one-on-one as I was away in Lagos for a visa interview at the German Embassy while he remained my guest in Abuja for our three-day MDGs Week event. The late Tajudeen remains glued to me on phone and internet based on the report people gave about my leadership as the NYSC MDGs CD President for which he was very impressed about my person, including what he saw on the ground. He had promised to see me when he is in Nigeria again having missed an opportunity for us to meet in Lagos on transit. Ever since then, we had remained in touch like two friends who grew up together while my hope of meeting this great man grew by the day. Now, all that is history! I am bitter but I’ve found solace in the cause which he died for - Pan-Africanism, development, light for those in darkness, freedom and emancipation of the world, the poor and the weak and service to humanity with an overall goal of making our world a better place. For all of us who claim to know, love or were close to him, we must walk that way. Only then can our testimony be true.
Dr. Tajudeen Abdulraheem, you were a great man indeed! Please rest in perfect peace, amen. Taju was a great man who was here and we knew he was indeed here. How will you let your world know you were here?