The former Minister
of Health during former president Goodluck Jonathan regime Babatunde Osotimehin
is dead. He was the minister of health from December 2008 to March 2010. Up until his death, the 68-year-old was the
executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
According to
sources at the UNFPA, his death was announced at the Nigerian office of the UN
body on Monday morning. He was said to have died in New York.
Family of the late
UNFPA executive director via a statement on Monday read “With gratitude to the
Almighty God for a life well-spent in service to Humanity, the Babatunde
Osotimehin Family of Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State of Nigeria, hereby announces the
transition of our Father and Grandfather, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin (OON),
the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Sunday,
4th June, 2017 at the age of 68 years.”
Funeral Arrangements will be announced by the
family.”
During his
lifetime, Osotimehin was dedicated to gender, youth and maternal health issues.
His last personal tweet alive was for “protecting the health and
rights of women and their babies”, which he said “is vital to protecting
our shared future”.
Prior to his
appointment as the minister, Osotimehin was the director-general, Nigerian
National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), and project manager for the
World-Bank assisted HIV/AIDS programme development project.
He intended before
his death to start an Husbands’ school in Nigeria, after the model seen in
Niger Republic.
Osotimehin, who
hails from Ijebu Igbo, Ogun state, was born in February 1949. He attended
Igbobi College in Lagos in the late 1960s, before moving on to the United
Kingdom, where he had his university education.
Source: The Cable,
Vanguard
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