Okey R. Mbadugha was born in Calabar, in Eastern Nigeria. He lived in Kano, Northern Nigeria and attended primary schools in both places. He finished his secondary education in Onitsha, in the then Eastern Nigeria. He worked briefly for the National Library of Nigeria in Lagos before leaving Nigeria for further studies overseas. He obtained the Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Mathematics from Cuttington College, Liberia and a Doctorate in Management Science from the University of California, Irvine, California, USA.
Okey Mbadugha taught Management at the universities of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa and Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Nigeria, and at the New York Institute of Technology as Adjunct Professor in the School of Management. He has lived in the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and traveled extensively in East and West Africa.