Īfter graduation and the breakdown of the USSR, he moved from Belarus to Ukraine in December 1993. In 1986, after graduation, Adelaja left Nigeria because he received a scholarship to study journalism at the Belarusian State University in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR.
He was raised by his grandmother and became Christian in March 1986 just before graduating from high school.
His name Adelaja means 'crown settled this fight' in Yoruba. Sunday Sunkanmi Adelaja was born in the village of Idomila Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria.
