Economic Confidential, June, 2009

TRIBUTE

Between Ladi Lawal and Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem

By Boniface Kassam

Bonkas204@yahoo.com

I have never been hit hard by the cruelty of death like the one I experienced on Saturday 23rd and Monday 25th May 2009. Those days will remain the darkest days of my life as two humanists and advocates of equity, justice and egalitarian society departed this sinful world. Those were the days Late Ladi Lawal, the former Group Managing Director of DAAR Communication Plc, and Late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Deputy Director, United Nations Millennium Campaign, died.

It was in the morning of Saturday, 23 May, 2009 while attending a retreat organised by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on anti-corruption revolution in Lagos, the sad news of the untimely demise of Late Ladi Lawal was broken to me by Gbenga Onayiga of Radio Nigeria. Like a premonition, we had just discussed the recent delegate’s conference of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, where Gbenga was returned un-opposed as a national Vice Chairman the previous day, and along the line we reflected back to the 1994 NUJ conference held in Sokoto where the late icon of broadcast journalism was elected as the National President of that great union.

As a delegate to that conference, it was my first contact with the late Ladi. A meeting I reminded him of recently at Top Rank Hotel, Abuja, the day Civil Society activists, politicians and media practitioners gathered to launch the 20 million signatures collection demanding for the full implementation of the Justice Uwais Report on Electoral Reform. He (Ladi) in his usual humility played the role of an usher at the occasion and in the process of giving me the campaign T-shirt, I reminded him of the Sokoto conference.

Back from Lagos the next day, Sunday 24 May, 2009, amidst tears from friends, colleagues and well wishers, I never envisaged that another bad news was waiting to befall us the next day. On Monday at exactly 5:45 am Nigerian time, while getting set to beat the usual Monday morning traffic, I received a text message from my friend, Kavengo Matundu of the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) office in Nairobi, Kenya, breaking yet, another sad news that his boss, Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, the deputy Director,(Africa) for the UNMC was involved in a fatal motor accident around 1:00 am (Kenyan time) that morning while on his way to the Jomo Kenyata Airport to board a flight to Rwanda to meet with the President on the current rise in maternal mortality rate in Africa.

The text message was sent to me because we had arranged a meeting for him with the House of Representatives Committee on MDGs the next day, 26th May 2009 in Abuja and he was expected to connect Nigeria from Rwanda. He was also scheduled to meet with us and other stakeholders in the campaign for the attainment of the MDGs in Nigeria.

Not recovered fully from the rude shock of the Ladi Lawal’s passing on, it was another distress  and sense of loss for me that Monday morning as I managed in total disbelieve to forward the sms to my Executive Director. The late social crusader was an Advisory Board member of my organization, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, (CISLAC). My encounter with him has always been within the confines of the advocacy circles where policy and governance issues are x-rayed and strategies of engaging political leaders mapped out and embarked upon.

The last of such meeting was at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja sometimes in March, 2009 where he met with few of us from the civil society groups to review the current status of the MDGs in Nigeria and other new entry points for engagement. At that short meeting which lasted for barely one hour, he had lamented the current decay in the system, particularly the rise in maternal mortality rate. The resolution therefore, was to step up the momentum on campaigns to ensure that Nigeria ranks among the countries that will attain the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which she signed on to, on or before 2015. Indeed, the passion he exuded at that meeting betrayed him as a social reformist and an untiring Pan Africanist, who carried along an infectious optimism about the continent.

The accomplishments of these gentlemen of international repute are legendary. The late Ladi Lawal has been the magic hand behind the metamorphosis of DAAR Communication, the first independent television and radio station in Nigeria. He left indelible marks in journalism profession as a practioner, union leader and manager. Similarly, late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was not just a scholar of international repute, but a social reformer whose intellectual thoughts gave rise to so many organisations such as Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), Pan African Movement and so many other organisations in London and Uganda. He has been a columnist for about twelve publications across the world.

The hallmark of these all is that they were highly de-tribalised in their dealings with people and remained dogged in their fight to improve livelihoods for citizens across the African continent. They lived exemplary lives that can be emulated by all, particularly our generations and those yet unborn.

While reflecting on the demise of these two crusaders who met their untimely death at the time Nigeria, Africa and the entire world look up to them for liberation, I saw a clear hope entrenched in their visions, characters, struggles for human rights, justice and democracy, non religious and tribal disposition, insights and wisdom.

Therefore, the unbearable tragic news and loss, which was not just to their families, but to all of us in Nigeria and Africa, will be too painful to forget. I see their demise at this critical moment in our chequered history as the fall of two colossuses whose passions tinged with humane attributes will continue to be remembered. Adieu Comrades

Kassam writes in from Abuja, Nigeria