Professor Adu was born in Igbara-Oke, Ondo State of Nigeria on July 4, 1944 and had his early education at St. Paul’s Anglican School, Igbara-Oke from 1951 to 1956. He was one of the beneficiaries of Chief Awolowo’s double promotion policy as part of the Universal Free Education Programme which took off in 1955. He spent a year on the farm with the father after the completion of his primary school education in 1956 before providence smiled on him to start his secondary school education in January 1958 at the newly established Anglican Grammar School in the town and obtained the West African School Certificate in December 1963.

He worked briefly as an Account Clerk with the Western Region Ministry of Agriculture before proceeding to the Animal Health School, Moor Plantation, Ibadan as one of the pioneer students of the school in September, 1964 and obtained a Diploma Certificate in October 1968. Destiny again smiled on young Adu in October 1968 when he was opportuned to join the Preliminary class of University of Ibadan, Ibadan from where he earned the Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) with Honours in Animal Science in June 1972. He taught briefly at Aiyede Grammar School, Aiyede, Ekiti State before he started his postgraduate studies with Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship in October 1972.

He obtained the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Animal Science in July 1975 from University of Ibadan. Professor Adu also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Pastoral Studies from Life Theological Seminary, Ikorodu in 2003. Prof Adu was conferred with a Doctor of Science degree (honoris causa) by McPherson University in November, 2019. Professor Adu worked as a Scientific Officer with the Nigeria Education Research Council of the Federal Ministry of Education between September 1975 and September 1976.

Professor started his over 43 years of Teaching and Research career at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria in October 1976 as Lecturer II/ Research Fellow II. At the university, he taught many undergraduate and postgraduate courses, supervised students and researched extensively particularly on Small Ruminant Nutrition and Management. Professor Adu had his postdoctoral training at the Rowett Research Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1977. Professor Adu rose quickly through the ranks to the Chair of Professor of Ruminant Nutrition and Management on 1st October, 1986 as a testament of his prolific and scholarlypeer-reviewed publications in national and international journals.

Professor Adu was highly published with 129 papers comprising 8 monographs, 3 chapters in books, 16 invited keynote/public lectures, 76 journal papers and 26 referred conference proceedings, apart from 32 occasional publications, reports and reviews.

Professor Adu attended over 60 major national and international scientific and professional conferences in his lifetime some of which he has acted as Chairman of Scientific Sessions. Professor Adu chaired the Academic and Programme Sub-committee of the 7th Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in 2013. He has been Deputy-Editor-in-Chief and member of the editorial committee/board of four learned journals. In the process of his career, Professor Adu supervised and graduated 14 masters and 5 doctoral students.

Professor Adu is an awardee of the prestigious Alexander Von-Humboldt Foundation Fellowship and was a visiting Professor to the University of Giessen, Germany from 1988 to 1989. He was an external examiner to 15 universities in Nigeria and 4 universities in Africa in his lifetime.