Adigun Agbaje earned his BSc (Honours) degree in Political Science at the University of Ibadan in the First Class Division in 1979. He subsequently earned his MSc degree in Mass Communications with distinctions from the University of Lagos in 1981, and his PhD in Political Science from the University of Ibadan in 1988 – also with distinctions.

He became Professor of Political Science at Ibadan in 1998 and was Dean, Faculty of the Social Sciences (2003-2005) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of academic matters (2006-2010) at the University. He also served as Director, Centre for Social Science Research and Development, Lagos, where he directed a Ford Foundation funded project on positive leadership in Nigeria. He was founding Director-General, Obafemi Awolowo Institute for Government and Public Policy, Lagos. He has been teaching Research Methods at the University level since 1984 and taught Research Methodology at the National War (now Defence) College in the period 2001-2013 and at the Institute of Strategic Studies, FCT, in 2012, and has made presentations on Research Methodology and doctoral supervision in Universities at home and abroad. He served (2018-2019) as Resource Person on Research Methodology and academic writing to the Meaning-Making Research Initiative (MRI) of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and serves (2019-Present) on Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund’s) National Research Fund Screening and Monitoring Committee (NRFS&MC).

He has held visiting appointments, including the following:  Visiting Commonwealth Fellow (1991-92) and Visiting Researcher (June-July 2019) at the University of Oxford,  and Visiting USIA Scholar, Trans-regional Centre for Democratic Studies, New School for Social Research, New York (1998);Visiting Professor, University of Lagos, Visiting USIA Fellow, Graduate Faculty, Centre (then) New School for Social Research, New York, and  Visiting Professor and Provost, College of Management and Social Sciences, Bowen University, Iwo (2021). He is currently Director General, Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Kayode Adetona Institute for Governance Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye.

He was General Co-Editor of International IDEA’s Democracy Assessment Mission to Nigeria (August 1999-July 2001). In 2016, he served as Team Leader/ Senior Consultant to the African Union Pre-Election Mission to Ghana (April-May) and as Principal Writer/Consultant to the African Peer Review Mission APRM Second Kenya Review Mission (October-November). He has served on the Selection Committee of the African Humanities Fellowship Programme of the American Council of Learned Societies since 2008 to the present, and has also served as mentor on doctoral research and manuscript development to that body. He was also a member of the Social Science Research Council of New York’s Selection Committee that presided over a Zoom-assisted four-round multidisciplinary COVID Rapid Research Grants Global Competition in July-August 2020. He very recently (29 September-1 October 2021) co-hosted an international colloquium on the Politics of Knowledge Production in African Studies with Prof Emeritus Fred Hendricks of Rhodes University and Prof Lungusile Ntsebeza of the University of Cape Town.

He was until October 2021 co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies (Grahamstown, South Africa) and serves on the editorial team of Media Culture and Society (London), African Journal of Public Affairs (Pretoria, South Africa), Journal of International Politics and Development (Kokoma, Indiana), Utafiti, Journal of the College of Humanties, University of Dar es Salaam, among many others.  He is Series Editor, African Humanities Book Series (New York and Grahamstown), and is author, co-author and co-editor of over 130 publications, including books, journal articles and chapters in books. He is currently engaged as co-editor (with Prof Said Adejumobi of the UNECA), in a two-volume, 30-chapter book project on Nigeria: Power, Politics and State Decline.

He has produced 13 PhDs, some of who are now serving or have served as Vice-Chancellors, Deans, Heads of Department, noted professors at home and abroad, including occupants of top-notch endowed chairs in the United Kingdom and the United States, and as members of and advisers to government at the federal and state levels in Nigeria.

He is married and is blessed with children and grandchildren. Among his hobbies are reading, writing, walking, and listening to music.