# Babafemi Badejo

Babafemi Badejo is a Nigerian academic, writer and diplomat.

## Early life and education

Badejo was born on 4 March 1955, in Ijebu Ode He attended Saint Saviours Primary School, Italowajoda, Ijebu Ode and Baptist Primary School, Ereko, Ijebu Ode. He finished at Ijebu Ode Grammar School, Ijebu Ode before proceeding to the University of Lagos in 1973 for his first degree in political science. He completed his Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA), US in 1982 and later LL.B., Bachelor of Law, University of Lagos, Nigeria. January 1990. He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on 12 December 1990.

## Life and Career

Badejo married Adejumoke Odusanya on 9 September 1977, and they have three daughters, a son and grandchildren. They jointly set up Yintab Private Academy, providing education from Crèche to Senior Secondary School. Badejo's interest in the game of chess, led to the sponsorship of the Femi Badejo National Chess Tournament in 2002, by the Femi Badejo Foundation in conjunction with the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF)
On 2 October 1991, the Minister of External Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria approved his participation in the 46th Session of the UN General Assembly as Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on his bid for the position of the UN Secretary General.
He formally left his academic career at the University of Lagos in 1996 for a career in peace operations at the United Nations, from which he retired on 31 March 2017. He served in many conflict areas, including Somalia, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau and Darfur Sudan. During an 11 years stay in Nairobi, Kenya at the UN Political Office for Somalia, he was appointed Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, (DSRSG) for Somalia.
Upon his retirement from the UN, he founded and headed Yintab Strategy Consults (YSC) in April 2017. In this capacity, he has played a key role for the African Union (AU), and the Addis Ababa branch of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Here, he designed the operationalisation of the African Union Humanitarian Agency. as well as worked on the Four-pillar Interlinkages for West and Central Africa in a consultancy for the UN ECA. He also consulted for the ECOWAS 2050 Vision Programme. He also served as an adviser to the Office of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain from 2018-2020 and in those years, served on the Bahraini delegation to the UN General Assembly. He currently advises His Excellency, Jose Ramos-Horta, and the President of Leste-Timorese on relations with Africa.
Contributions in Research and Development
Babafemi A. Badejo returned to the classroom becoming a professor at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, Nigeria, beginning 11 March 2021. He is widely published in a number of academic journals, books, and chapters in books including a Best Seller on Kenya (Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics, 2006). He has shared his thoughts on a number of touching issues, especially around corruption, leadership deficit, governance and political economy of Africa on different newspapers and social media. Through one of his most recent books titled: Nigerians’ Views on National Turmoil: A Situational Quadruple Nexus Analysis, he advanced the Situational Quadruple Nexus Analysis, as an explanatory framework that is central for an understanding of the absence of peace and security, development, human rights and humanitarianism in Africa.
He is very committed to the fight against corruption and the promotion of good governance. In his most recent effort on corruption in Nigeria, "Nigeria Corruption Perception Data" he widens the understanding of corruption to include the three arms of government, the three tiers of government as well as the three sectors in society: public, private and social. This is termed the 3X3X3 approach to understanding corruption in Nigeria. At this dimension of spread and grip of corruption, it can only be considered rightfully as a pandemic. It is unfortunate, however, that this pandemic, unlike that of Covid-19, is being accommodated and not unequivocally confronted.
Prof. Badejo offers a fresh conceptualisation of democracy. He argues in many of his works that civil rule as opposed to military intervention in politics is not to be confused with democratic governance. He unequivocally states that Nigeria, given its leadership deficit, level of corruption, the external dynamics the country faces with lack of viable institutions as well as paucity of human and material resources cannot be said to be democratic. Shambolic elections coupled with underperformance of the state in providing the environment for the realisation of utmost freedom denies it the appellation of being democratic.