Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, predecessor of the current Nigerian health minister has been appointed to head the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the agency announced recently.

Professor Osotimehin was serving as provost of the College of Medicine until his new appointment. He takes over from Dr Thoraya Obaid, a Saudi Arabian anthropologist whose tenure comes to an end on the 31st of December

Before his appointment as Minister of Health, Prof Osotimehin had served as Director of the National Aids Control Agency (NACA) where he was credite with ensuring the embedding of the AIDS control strategy at state and local government levels. We blogged about his appointment as Minister of Health here and a Nigerian news magazine reported on his tenure at NACA here

One of his strengths was his diplomacy and ability to listen to different groups and individuals

We wish him well in his new assignment and hope that he will make Nigeria proud