 Audu was born on March 1, 1927 in Anchau, a village near Zaria, Kaduna State, to a father who had converted from Islam to Christianity.Initially educated at St. Bartholomew’s School in Wusasa, he moved to Yaba Higher College in Lagos and then to University College, Ibadan (renamed University of Ibadan) in 1948.In 1951, he left for the University of London in England, where he stayed until 1954.