Professor Abdulraufu Mustapha dies at 63
Professor Abdulraufu Mustapha has died at the age of 63, family sources said.
He was a professor of African Politics at the Department of Government, University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
An eminent scholar and author, Mustapha died of stomach cancer at about 3 p.m. London time yesterday. He is survived by his wife, Kate and three children.
He was author of many works including, Turning Points in African Democracy; and Sects and Social Disorder, Muslim Identities and Conflict in Northern Nigeria.
Mustapha hailed from Ilorin, Kwara State, studied at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, for his Bachelors and Masters degree in Political Science, and proceeded to the University of Oxford in London, where he earned his doctorate degree and stayed back to lecture till his death. He was a member of the Premium Times Editorial Board.
Mustapha’s research focused on the politics of rural societies in Africa, ethnicity and identity politics and the politics of democratisation in Africa. He had held teaching positions at Bayero University, Kano, and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
He was a member of the editorial advisory groups for the Review of African Political Economy, Africa, and the Board of Trustees of the Development Research and Projects Centre (DRPC), Kano, Nigeria.
Mustapha was the lead researcher on the Islam Research Project, IRP-Abuja, funded by the Dutch Foreign Ministry.
The professor also worked on the report on ethnic minorities for the Working Group on Ethnic Minorities, UN Commission on Human Rights, and the project on ‘Ethnic Structure and Public Sector Governance’ for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva.
Family sources said his remains would be brought to Ilorin for burial, although no date has been given. (Premium Times)