Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, 75, an outspoken former Nigerian health minister, influential AIDS campaigner and brother of the late African music superstar Fela, died Sunday in his hotel in London while on a business trip. An autopsy was being performed.
A medical doctor educated at University College, Ibadan and the University of Dublin, Ireland, he began practicing in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos in 1954.
As minister of health from 1986 to 1992, Dr. Ransome-Kuti used his influence to radically increase funding for primary health services, such as clean water and immunization, to improve the lives of millions of impoverished Africans.
His brother - the flamboyant founder of the jazzy Afro-beat musical genre - died of AIDS in 1997, and Dr. Ransome-Kuti became the first well-known Nigerian to flout strong taboos that had prevented others from acknowledging the sickness.
