Professor Babafemi Adesina Badejo was born at Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria. He is a product of both the Anglican and Baptist Primary Schools at Ijebu-Ode. He subsequently proceeded to one of the foremost schools in the Nigeria of those days: Ijebu-Ode Grammar School (JOGS) for his secondary and higher secondary school education.

At the University of Lagos, (Unilag) for his B.Sc. Political Science degree, Babafemi Adesina Badejo, enjoyed the Western State Bursary and Federal Government Merit Scholarship. He finished top of his 1976 Political Science class, with a Second-Class Upper Division result, which also earned him the Chancellor’s Award. He actively participated in Student Unionism and was elected the University of Lagos Students Union Public Relations Secretary, 1974/75.

Upon completing his National Youth Service, he returned to Unilag to work as a Graduate Assistant, under the then arrangement as the University’s Council appointee. As a beneficiary of the visionary policy of late Prof. J.F. Ade Ajayi to train academic manpower anywhere in the world for Unilag, he proceeded on a fully funded scholarship to study Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in September 1978.

Babafemi A. Badejo obtained a Ph.D. in Political Science in June 1982 (inclusive of a Master of Arts, Master’s in Philosophy, 6-month fieldwork in Pakistan, and a dissertation on the political economy of Pakistan all completed in less than four years), from UCLA. In spite of a 2-year diversion for National Service and one-year pre-training leave service at Unilag, his Ph.D. was attained at age 27. In between these competing academic commitments, he found time to support the worldwide anti-apartheid campaign while at UCLA as a student and continued into the early 1990s.

In 1982, Prof. Badejo returned to his classroom commitment as a Lecturer II at Unilag, despite all the enticing opportunities for a stay-back in the USA. He attained the status of a Senior Lecturer in 1986. He actively participated in politics at the University of Lagos both as an elected member of the Senate as well as Assistant Secretary/De Facto Secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Unilag Branch.

He was an active contributor to policy debates on Nigerian political reality and the country’s foreign policy, including while on a sabbatical at the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs (NIIA) as well as rapporteur for the All-Nigeria Foreign Policy Conference of 1986.

In the sheer quest for knowledge, he obtained a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Lagos, in January 1990, winning the Abiola Ojo Best Student Award and Taslim Elias Award for Jurisprudence at graduation.

He became a Legal Practitioner in December 1990 after attending the Nigerian Law School.

He was appointed by the Nigerian Government as Special Assistant to General Olusegun Obasanjo in the General’s bid for election as the UN Secretary-General from October to November 1991 and participated as a Nigerian delegate at the 46th UN General Assembly.

Badejo was in 1992, the first African invited to be part of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), team on its flagship annual Human Development Reports and was part of the team that put together the UNDP International Human Development Reports for 1993 and 1994 and consulted on the South African Human Development Report in April 1995.

He started work at the UN Operation for Somalia (UNOSOM II) in May 1993 on a leave of absence from Unilag. In 1996, he officially severed his employment with Unilag for a career with the UN. For twenty-three years, and ten months, he served the UN at peace support operations in Somalia, Kenya on Somalia, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Darfur, Sudan. He retired on the 31st of March, 2017 as Head of Political Affairs Section, UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

Some of the other previous roles he held at the United Nations include:

Chief of Staff, Joint Mediation Support Team (JMST), UNAMID, May 2014 – June 2015

Chief of Staff, UN Integrated Office in Guinea-Bissau, (UNIOGBIS), September 2009 through to May 2014 and charged with the implementation of the UN-wide integration in Guinea-Bissau. He also represented the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General at many ECOWAS Summit.

Principal Adviser on Regional and Subregional Issues, United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), Monrovia Liberia, June 25 to September 27, 2009. And before this, as Head, Political, Policy and Planning Section, UNMIL, Monrovia, Liberia.

Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, (DSRSG) UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS).

Officer in Charge, Disarmament, Demobilization and Demining Division., United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II).

These roles saw him give major advisory support to the United Nations in the pursuit of peace through dialogue on many mediation efforts and reconciliation conferences in many countries as well as support post-conflict peacebuilding missions.

In the course of his service with the United Nations, he built leadership and mediation expertise from some programs. He attended the UN Resident Coordinator Assessment Centre, in March 2002, and passed in the first category without reservation. He undertook the UNITAR Regional Training Programme to Enhance Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in Africa, 2001; ICRC, International Humanitarian Law course, Nyeri, Kenya, 2002; UN Senior Mission Leaders’ Course, New Delhi, January 2008, as well as Leadership Development Programme, July 2008, in New York and in Switzerland, February 2009

Today, Professor Badejo wears a number of caps in his commitment of service to humanity. He is referred to as a Pracademics being a renowned, highly experienced academic who combines research on comparative and international political economy with vast hands-on practices on peace & security, development, and humanitarian affairs.

He is a member of the Nigeria Bar Association. He obtained certifications in mediation and a member of the Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse Panel of Neutrals; Associate, Chartered Institute of Arbitration U.K.; and Associate member, of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria.

He has extensive experience in academics at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Lagos, Lagos, and briefly with the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. With almost 17 years at the University of Lagos, he taught and mentored many successful students and undertook research on many issues, especially on comparative and international political economy, before leaving for peace support operations service with the United Nations.

He was appointed the first Professor at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, and assumed duties on March 11, 2021. He is currently the Head of the Department of Political Science, Chrisland University.

Prof. Badejo considers the amelioration of leadership deficit/corruption and external dynamics around which Africa is operating as very critical for the development of Africa. Beyond his pan-Africanist interests, he believes in a just and equitable world for all.

He served as Strategic Adviser to the Office of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain from September 2018-November 2020 and was part of the Bahraini Delegation to the UN 73 & 74th General Assembly sessions, that is, for two consecutive years and supported the Bahrain Visions Forum dialogue among world leaders.

He is a public speaker of international repute. In 2018, he spoke at the Bahrain Visions Forum at the UN General Assembly. In 2019, he spoke in Addis Ababa, Dakar, Johannesburg, and Lagos at AU and/or UN fora on either the African Continental Free Trade Area or the African Humanitarian Agency – an Agency for which he singlehandedly provided the Framework for its Operationalization. He also spoke at the Oslo Peace Center, Norway in June 2019 and the Bled Strategic Forum in September 2019 at the invitation of the Prime Minister/Foreign Minister of Slovenia.

On April 1, 2017, Dr. Badejo assumed office as the Founder, and Chief Executive Officer, and lead consultant at Yintab Strategy Consults (YSC) which was incorporated in early 2017 and from where he joined Chrisland University. Through the platform of YSC, he was motivated to embrace innovative means of knowledge sharing, research, and supporting impact-driven ideas, with no limitation to boundaries.

Professor Babafemi A. Badejo is a renowned professor of Political Science and International Relations who has contributed immensely to the academic world with over 48 publications. These include a best seller book on politics in Kenya, and Nigerians’ Views on National Turmoil: A Situational Quadruple Nexus Analysis, as well as other books; Team Publications; Referred Articles; Monographs; and Chapters in books, as well as other major research work in progress.

Babafemi A. Badejo is an academic who has written extensively on the topic of corruption in Africa. He has written chapters in books on: “Corruption Blooms in Nigeria”, “The State of Anti-Corruption in Nigeria: 2015-2019”, “The Persistence of Corruption in Nigeria: Towards a Holistic Focus”, “Economic Philosophy and Constitution Making in Nigeria”, “Politicization of Ethnicity, Inequities and Electoral Violence in Kenya”, “Managing the Somali Conflict Post Mbagathi Conference”, “Governance in Kenya after Moi”, “Party Formation and Competition”, “Being a Nigerian These Days”, “The Associative Sector and the Poor in Africa”, “The Political Implications of the African Economic Community” among other impactful articles on the African continent at large.

Prof. Badejo is also known for his work on the interlinkages between the Development, Peace and Security, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Pillars in the West and Central Africa Sub–regions. Important is his contribution of Situational Quadruple Nexus as an analytical and operational framework to understand politics in general and/or execute interventions.

Prof. Badejo enjoys excellent relationships with many world leaders including as Senior Adviser to the current President of Timor-Leste & Nobel Laureate, H.E. Jose Ramos-Horta, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as Shaikh Hussam Bin Essa Al-Khalifa, immediate past President of the Court of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Prof. Badejo is married to Mrs. Adejumoke Badejo, a union of over 45 years. The couple incorporated Yintab Limited in 1989 and invested in providing nursery and primary education in what started in 1990 in a rented bungalow under the leadership of Mrs. Badejo who acquired and grew the bungalow into a two-story building at Shogunle – a lower-class community. The schools expanded to a larger site at Ikorodu as Yintab Private Academy, providing education from creche to Senior Secondary School levels.

Professor Badejo, and his wife are blessed with four children: Mrs. Adeyinka Abosede Sanogo, Mrs. Adetokunbo Oluwatobi Sodiya, Mr. Adebola Oluwademilade Badejo and Mrs. Abidemi Oluwadamilola Ayodele.