‘Osotimehin died watching television’

Babatunde Osotimehin

NMA, others mourn renowned doctor

Professor Babatunde Osotimehin might have died of heart attack while watching television in his sitting room, The Guardian reliably gathered. A source told The Guardian that the late professor, former Minister of Health and pioneer Director-General of the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) was hale and hearty and did not complain of any ill-health before he passed on watching television in New York, United States (U.S.).

However, more eulogies have continued to come for the renowned medical doctor who was until his death the fourth Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 2011 till his passage on Monday.

The President, National Officers’ Committee (NOC) and the entire members of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), yesterday joined the immediate family, the governments of Ogun State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the entire global health community to mourn the passage of Osotimehin.

President, NMA, Prof. Mike O. Ogirima, and the Secretary-General, Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, yesterday in a joint statement described Osotimehin as a renowned clinical consultant, refined medical lecturer and professor who imparted knowledge to many at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, visionary healthcare administrator and international health manager who would be greatly missed for the roles he played as professor and head of department of chemical pathology at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan and University of Ibadan (UI); National Postgraduate Medical College; the Nigerian Academy of Sciences and several other international postgraduate medical institutions, Chair of the National Action Committee on AIDS between 2002 and 2007 and later Director-General of the Nigerian National Agency for the Control of AIDS and Minister of Health Federal Republic of Nigeria December 2008 – March 2010, among several many positions he held at various times.

The NMA has also opened a condolence register for Osotimehin at the NMA Headquarters Office, 8, Benghazi Street, off Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Abuja.