Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, head of UNFPA dies

The Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has died, the UN agency announced in a press release today, June 5, 2017.

According to the release, Dr. Osotimehin, 68, died suddenly at his home last night.

Dr. Osotimehin, a physician and public health expert, was appointed the UNFPA’s fourth Executive Director on January 1, 2011, with.

Before this appointment, with the rank of United Nations Under-Secretary-General, he was the Minister of Health for Nigeria. He had earlier worked as Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, which coordinated HIV and AIDS work in Nigeria.
 
Dr. Osotimehin qualified as a doctor from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1972, and went to the University of Birmingham, England, where he got a doctorate in medicine in 1979. He was appointed Professor at the University of Ibadan in 1980 and headed the Department of Clinical Pathology before being elected Provost of the College of Medicine in 1990. Dr. Osotimehin received the Nigerian national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger in December 2005. He led several councils, including in the World Economic Forum, the release said.

He was married, had five children and several grandchildren.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi