Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of UN Population Fund (UNFPA),Nigerian Ex-Minister, and UN Under Secretary-General is dead.
Family and UNFPA sources have confirmed that Osotimehin,who was a one-time Nigeria’s Minister of Health reportedly died in the early hours of Monday at the age of 68. According to Dr. Babajide Osotimehi who spoke on behalf of the family, the UNFPA’s boss died on Sunday. This was contained in a two paragraph statement issued on Monday by Dr Babajide.
Prof Osotimehin was the Director General of National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) and was also a former Provost of the College of Medicine at the University of Ibadan before he became health minister. He became the CEO of UNFPA on 19th November 2010 to serve a four-year term and was re-appointed on 21st August 2014. The late Prof was born on 6 February 1949. As indicated by positioning, he holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Late Osotimehin attended Igbobi College from 1966 to 1971.After his medical studies at University of Ibadan, he received a doctorate degree in medicine from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, in 1979.
In May 2017, the late Ex-Health Minister had lamented the high rate of maternal mortality due to the neglect by government to take health issues, especially that of pregnant women and their babies seriously. According to him, “in my present job, it’s painful for me to hear, see women die during childbirth.” He had said that it was no longer acceptable for a woman to die during childbirth, and it would therefore be a very painful experience for him should such happen.
The late UNFPA chief had also said that people should insist that both local and state governments must deliver healthcare to them. He had added that if people failed to hold government accountable as far as healthcare is concerned, the nation’s health problems would continue to persist. In his words: “In the present job I have, it is very painful for me that I would hear and I would see women die during childbirth, as minister and as a doctor. I have seen women die needlessly because they don’t have care and because they don’t get care.So a woman who is in labour goes into a care centre and she bleeds to death. This is totally unacceptable. Those are things that in present day world must not occur at all. These are not things we cannot prevent.” he said.
Sadly enough, this advocate for pregnant women’s well-being died on Monday
