Dr. Okoi Arikpo was a Nigerian scientist, anthropologist, lawyer, politician, and diplomat who was born in Ugep Cross River, Calabar. He was Nigeria’s foreign minister at the time.
Early in the 1940s, Dr. Okoi Arikpo served as president of the West African Student’s Union in the United Kingdom. Students from West Africa studying in Great Britain used this organization as a focal point. In order to bring attention to the political issues that African colonies and their leaders are confronting back home in various African countries, WASU engaged in lobbying members of the British Parliament.
The organization served as the focal point for the mobilization of some left-leaning individuals to support the struggle of the colonial territories.