Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, UN Under-Secretary-General and the Executive Director of UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is dead.
Osotimehin was a one-time Nigeria’s Minister of Health reportedly died in the early hours of Monday.
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, especially that of pregnant women and their babies seriously.
He had said that ” 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, therefor would be a painful experience for him considering his status in the medical line to see or hear women die during childbirth.
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.
“We cannot and should not ever leave everything to the hands of the government,” he said.
Sadly enough, the good health for pregnant mothers’ advocate died on Monday.
VANGUARD
