He studied humanities at a minor seminary in Kibula at the College Notre-Dame de Mbanza-Mboma from 1952 until 1960.
Afterwards he became a professor and in 1971 became the dean of faculty of law at the Kinshasa campus of the National University of Zaire (formerly Lovanium).
He criticised terra nullius as materialistic and a contributory factor to the partition of Africa among European empires.
He instead posited that a spiritual, ancestral connection between a plot of land and the people born of it offered a stronger basis for claims to sovereignty.
Opposition groups regarded Bayona as a puppet of Mobutu and doubted his ability to fairly oversee the process.