Professor Adikwu graduated from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria in 1986. He worked as a hospital pharmacist upon graduation from 1986-1990. In 1990, he joined the services of the University of Nigeria and rose to the rank of Professor in 1998. He teaches and researches into various aspects of pharmaceutical education and particularly raw materials utilization. He has published over 300 research articles in both national and international peer reviewed journals and over 160 papers presented at both local and international conferences.
1n 2007 he was appointed the National Coordinator of Science and Technology Education Post Basic (STEP-B), a project aimed at improving post-basic and higher education system in Nigeria through the World Bank IDA system. Under this Project eleven Centres of Excellence emerged based on various national needs.
He has both local and international experience in the pharmaceutical industry especially in education and research as he has visited overseas laboratory thrice as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany (1999-2000), a Matsumae Fellow in Japan (2002) and a Royal Society Fellow in Manchester, United Kingdom (2006). In the area of international grants, he has won a research grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry of Great Britain (2002); a grant from the Third World Academy of Sciences, Italy (2004) and another grant from the International Foundation for Science, Sweden (2004). Locally he has won grants from the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Abuja and another grant from Wellcome Trust, Lagos.
He has won the Nigerian Prize for Science (2006) and the May and Baker Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Pharmacy (2009). In 2019, he was awarded The World Academy of Science Prize, Trieste, Italy, Regional Prize. He was the Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, Nigeria, from June 2014 to June 2019.
