Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-raheem, United Nations Millennium Campaign Deputy Director and a leading Pan-Africanist is reported dead. He died in a road accident on his way to launch a maternal health campaign in Kigali, Rwanda, early Monday morning. A statement by the Millennium Campaign office said the accident occurred on Mombasa road en-route to Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem joined the UN Millennium Campaign in March, 2006 as the Deputy Director for Africa. His primary role was to lead the Africa team in inspiring citizens across Africa to become more proactive in engaging their leaders to the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is recognized for his outspokenness and strong leadership role in campaigning for global justice, good governance, public accountability, human rights, democracy, regional integration and Pan Africanism. He has also been a freelance journalist, writer and political analyst writing regularly on contemporary Africa in newspapers, magazines, journals and radio and was analyst for the BBC's World Service Programmes on Africa both in Hausa and English, Radio France International, Voice of America (VOA). He is the founding co-ordinator of the London-based Africa Research and Information Bureau (ARIB) and also editor of its journal, Africa World Review. He is better known on the internet and in the Print Media for his syndicated weekly column, TAJUDEEN’s POSTCARD which is widely circulated online and is published in several newspapers in different countries in Africa. Until his death, he was serving as a Trustee, Board member or Patron of many Civil society organisations and charities including the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Justice Africa, Hauwa Memorial College and Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme. He was also the Secretary to the Advisory Committee of the Abuja based Media Trust Group of Newspapers’ African Person of the Year . Prior to joining the Millennium Campaign he was the General Secretary of the Pan African Movement Secretariat in Kampala, Uganda and Co–Director of the London Based human Rights and Peace organisation, Justice AFRICA. Dr Abdul-Raheem, was born in 1961 in Funtua, Katsina State, Nigeria. He was educated at Government Schools in Funtua from where he went to Bayero University, Kano, where he graduated with a first class honours degree in Political Science in 1982. He was winner of The Federal Government of Nigeria's Merit Award as the best student of Political Science between 1980-1982 at Bayero University. After his National Youth Service, Tajudeen was elected Rhodes Scholar for Nigeria and preceded to St. Peter's College, Oxford University, United Kingdom, where he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Politics. In his condolence message, UN Millennium Campaign Director Salil Shetty said that Africa had suffered a huge irreplaceable loss as a result of the sad incident. “Taju was amongst Africa’s foremost voices for Pan Africanism and social justice, both inside and outside the continent and his weekly post card and columns in about 10 major African newspapers made him known to virtually everybody in Africa and friends of Africa across the world, he said Noting that Dr. Tajudeen Taju has over the last four years tirelessly campaigned for African leaders to keep their commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and poverty eradication by 2015, he added “Dr. Tajudeen’s towering intellect, moral fibre and courage of conviction allowed him to speak truth to power like nobody could. It is ironical that on Africa Day (25 May) Africa has lost one of its greatest voices and the Millennium Development Goals, its most credible advocate in Africa”. He will be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Funtua, Katsina State, Nigeria on 26th May, 2009. [ The UN Millennium Campaign was established by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2002. The Campaign supports citizens’ efforts to hold their governments to account for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals were adopted by 189 world leaders from the north and south, as part of the Millennium Declaration which was signed in 2000. These leaders agreed to achieve the Goals by 2015.]