In this autobiography*, Looking Back: The History of an Oke Padi
Resident*, Professor Laditan travels back in time to tell the story of
his life that spans over eight decades. It is the story of his birth,
early childhood, education, marriage, and career. The book deals with
his polygamous upbringing and describes how he spent early childhood
with his mother and grandmother in Ibadan. His life journey took him
through varied experiences as he later lived in Ilaro with his paternal
grandparents, both of whom were non-literate. He was fourteen-years-old
when he started to live with his father and stepmother in Lagos. He
attended Igbobi College in Lagos for his school certificate and higher
school certificate education, after which he proceeded to the United
Kingdom to study medicine at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Professor Laditan is a retired professor of Child Health and
Paediatrics. His professional career started as a Paediatric Resident at
the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria. He later
transferred his service to the University of Ibadan (UI) as a Research
Fellow and Consultant Paediatrician at the Institute of Child Health,
where he became Professor and Director of the Institute. In 1984, he was
invited from the Institute of Child Health to be the Foundation Provost
of a new Medical School, Obafemi Awolowo College of Health Sciences
(OACHS) and the Pioneer Chief Medical Director of its teaching hospital
in Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. In 1988, he left for Saudi Arabia and
practised as a Consultant Paediatrician until he left in 2002 and
relocated to the USA.
