Kehinde Sunday Oluwadiya: A star that never dims
By Abraham Ariyo, M.D.
We congratulate Professor Oluwadiya on this occasion of being inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Medicine this week.
He is an Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology professor at Ekiti State University (EKSU). He is the Chief Medical Director at the University of Sierra Leone Teaching Hospitals Complex in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Kehinde Sunday Oluwadiya has an excellent career in medicine with MBBS, M.D., FMCS, FACS, FNAMed. He is the 2023 Nigerian Academy of Medicine Inductee.
Young Diya was born in Okemesi-Ekiti in Western Nigeria. This town is known to have produced more professors per capita than any other town in Nigeria. He attended the prestigious Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, for his Secondary education. This school is reputable as an “incubator of professors” – it has produced more Professors than any other high school in the nation. Equipped with this pedigree, he enrolled to study Medicine at the best Medical School in West Africa, The College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
Our paths crossed as Medical students at the UI-Medical School. In 1985, we all took the almighty Pre-Clinical (2nd MB) Examination, a difficult examination that separates and defines those who would become doctors and move on to the hospital. That year, he distinguished himself, setting himself apart from the crowd, and passed the examination with the award of a distinction in Anatomy. He comes across as a well-rounded, brilliant student whom one of our classmates nicknamed a “Brain-box,” and another called him a “Walking Encyclopedia.” He graduated with honors from Medical School in 1989.
His affection, extensive knowledge, and proficiency in Anatomy drew him to Surgery. While we were students, he conducted seminars in chest anatomy and had a complete command of the subject such that he could write a book on it. Thus, many of us thought he would be a chest surgeon. But he has a separate plan; he chose Orthopedic surgery and never looked back. He enrolled for his postgraduate training at one of the best orthopedic programs in the country, at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife. He continued to excel and distinguished himself at the postgraduate level. Specifically, as a resident doctor, he won the 1996 – Oritsejolomi Thomas’s Prize for the best candidate in Nigeria in the Part I Examination of the Faculty of Surgery of The National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.
Subsequently, he worked at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) and Osun State University before joining EKSU in 2011. He rose quickly from the position of Lecturer I in 2002 to a full professor in 2010. He is a Fellow of the Medical College of Surgeons in Orthopaedics and Traumatology, a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. This year, he was elected a Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Medicine.
The hallmark of a genius is the ability to seek and find answers to unanswered questions or needs. Thus, like the great minds before him, they seek answers to unknown things necessary to society. As the need arises, he genuinely believes one should always strive to acquire new skills and knowledge, especially to answer and occupy the myriads of vacuum to serve people’s needs. During his residency training, he taught himself SPSS, the popular statistic software of the 90s. He subsequently wrote a book on the subject. The book, now in its Fifth Edition, has helped many resident doctors and clinical researchers attain proficiency in statistics and clinical research in Nigeria. Thus, since 2003, he has taught SPSS and statistics at the Biennial Research Methodology Workshops of the Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. Professor Oluwadiya is more renowned for SPSS and Statistics in Nigeria than for Orthopedics, his specialty. He has a dedicated website, which, as a surgeon, he designed himself. Further, he has an educational YouTube Channel – Prof Oluwadiya Educational Channel – for research methodology and statistics for resident doctors.
Professor Oluwadiya had served as Head of the Department of Surgery (HOD) at LAUTECH, the HOD of the Anatomy Department, the Dean of the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences at Osun State University, Osogbo, and Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences at the College of Health Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Akure. He served as Provost of the College of Medicine at Ekiti State University; as Provost, he graduated the first sets of medical doctors from the College, increased the number of courses, and added two postgraduate programs and a diploma course in Anatomy and Mortuary sciences, the first of its kind in Nigeria. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Journal of Orthopaedic and Trauma, the official Journal of the Nigerian Orthopaedic Association, and the Nigerian Stethoscope, the official journal of the College of Medicine, Ekiti State University, which he established when he was the Provost of the College. Since 2011, he has been a member of the GIEESC Burden of Surgical Disease Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO). He was the immediate past Chairman of the College of Health Sciences and Technology, Ijero-Ekiti.
Professor Oluwadiya has published over 130 articles in scientific peer-reviewed journals, published three books, and has attended more than 45 local and international conferences. He is married to Ronke Oluwadiya, an Economist, and they have two children.
