Background
Emmanuel Odeku was born on June 29, 1927 in Awe, Nigeria, in the family of Daniel Lapido and Regina Eyinade Folowiyo (Adensina) Odeku.
Emmanuel Odeku was born on June 29, 1927 in Awe, Nigeria, in the family of Daniel Lapido and Regina Eyinade Folowiyo (Adensina) Odeku.
Emmanuel attended Methodist Boys High School, Lagos, and proceeded to Howard University and graduated summa cum laude in Zoology in 1950. He was subsequently awarded a scholarship to study Medicine at Howard University, earning his Doctor of Medicine in 1954.
After passing the Licencuate Medical exam of Canada, Latunde spent the following year in Nigeria as a medical officer at the Lagos General Hospital. In 1961, he returned to the United States and was offered a residency position, training under Dr. Kahn at the University of Michigan. Afterwards, he trained in Neurology under Dr. Webb Haymaker at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He subsequently underwent another pediatric neurosurgery residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia under Dr. Eugene Spitz, creator of the Spitz-Holter valve for treating hydrocephalus. In 1961, he was appointed Instructor of Neuroanatomy and Neurosurgery at the College of Medicine, Howard University.
Although Latunde was subsequently offered multiple appointments including two distinguished academic neurosurgery faculty positions in the United States; however, he chose to return to Nigeria. Latunde came to the University of Ibadan in 1962 as the first neurosurgeon of West Africa. In 1962, he was appointed as senior faculty and became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In 1965, he was appointed as a Professor of Neurosurgery; from 1968 to 1971, serving as the head of the Department of Surgery and the Dean of the University of Ibadan College of Medicine. He also established the National and West African Postgraduate Medical Colleges and the initiation processes at the University of Ibadan College of Medicine, presently performed in all Nigerian medical schools.
Latunde was also a poet and writer: he made significant contributions to the neurosurgical literature, publishing 61 scientific articles over a period of about 12 years.
Latunde was married twice both times to medical doctors, he had four children.
