Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti

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Ransome-Kuti was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria.

His mother Funmilayo Kuti, battled against indiscriminate taxation of women by the British colonial government. She was the first Nigerian woman to drive a car and was part of the team that negotiated Nigerian independence.

His father Oladotun Ransome-Kuti was an Anglican priest and founded the Nigerian Union of Teachers.

His brother Fela Kuti was a famous musician and activist who founded Afrobeat. Ransome-Kuti helped to form Nigeria's first human rights organization, the Campaign for Democracy, which in 1993 opposed the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. In 1995, a military tribunal sentenced him to life in prison for bringing the mock trial of Olusegun Obasanjo to the attention of the world. He was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and freed in 1998 following the death of Sani Abacha. Ransome-Kuti was a fellow of the West African College of Physicians and Surgeons, a leading figure in the British Commonwealth's human rights committee, chair of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance.

Ransome-Kuti died February 10, 2006, at approximately 11:20 P.M. at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria at the age of 65 years from complications of lung cancer.

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