Oluwakayode Osuntokun

Osuntokun (1935-1995) was a pioneering Nigerian researcher and neurologist from Okemesi, Ekiti State. He was one of the foundation members of the Pan African Association of Neurological Sciences and an early advocate and researcher on tropical neurology. He had his primary and secondary education at the Holy Trinity School, Ilawe Ekiti, the Emmanuel School, Ado Ekiti and Christ School, also in Ado Ekiti. After, finishing his secondary education, he studied medicine at the University College, Ibadan.

Research and Career
He joined the research staff of the University College, Ibadan in 1964, as a medical research fellow. However, upon gaining a Smith and Nephew fellowship he went abroad for further studies under the direction of Henry Miller and John Walton both eminent neurologists in Newcastle. After, spending some time in Newcastle, he took a job at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queens, London before returning to Nigeria in 1965. It was at the University of Ibadan, he launched a productive career, working on neuro-epidemiology and clinical and investigative neurology especially the study of dementia among Nigerians and African Americans.

In the late 1960s, he investigated cases of ataxic neuropathy in Epe where residents usually consume a dose of ill processed cassava with little or no supplement. He then mapped out the epidemiology of the neuropathy and was able to study the basic aspects of the neuropathy. He discovered the disease was due to cyanide intoxication. At the time, little was done beyond clinical attention to the disease. His success in discovering the basis of tropical Ataxic Neuropathy earned him local and international acclaim in the medical community.

Throughout his career, he wrote a number of scholarly works on his prodigious research on tropical epidemiology and was also a dean of Medicine at the University of Ibadan and later the Chief Medical Officer of the University's teaching hospital, UCH.