Born on February 24, 1941, in Igbaja in the present Ifelodun local government area of the state, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo was educated at the All Saints Anglican School, Oke-Onigbin, Provincial Secondary School, Ilorin and then at Barewa College, Zaria from 1962 to 1963.
He studied at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1964–1967), and at the University of Ghana, Legon (1967–1969) and later became a lecturer at the University of Ife in 1969, and in 1973, he was appointed Head of the English Department at Kwara State College of Technology.
Between 1975 and 1978, he was Commissioner for Education and later Commissioner for Information and Economic Development in Kwara State.
In 1979, Adebayo was elected as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria running for the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
In 1983, he was elected governor of Kwara state, but was removed on 31, December 1983, when the military overthrow led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari took control and later became Minister during the Olusegun Obasanjo-led government in 1999.
