How do you celebrate the significant 70 years if you spent your life managing books? Nyaknno Abasi Osso gave a perfect answer with the publication of another book. His latest title, Against All Odds, is a fitting testament that documents his journey.
Osso is a librarian, journalist, and founder of the Bibliographical Legacy and Research Foundation. Those who know praise Osso as the foremost librarian and bookkeeper in Nigeria. His exploits are legendary and include compiling and editing the first Who’s Who in Nigeria. The title added to the laurels of both Osso and Newswatch magazine.
Osso was President Olusegun Obasanjo’s special assistant on library, research, and documentation. He later worked with Obasanjo to build Africa’s first presidential library. Analysts hail Osso as “the search engine before Google,” underlining the crucial role he played in information access before the internet became readily available.
Osso was known for his vast knowledge and ability to find information through traditional library methods. His top-notch research expertise makes him a go-to person for finding reliable information.
Nyaknno Osso’s influence as a role model for librarianship in Nigeria cannot be overstated. He has been instrumental in promoting the significance of libraries and information access in the country.
70th birthdays are often celebrated with joy, gratitude, and a sense of accomplishment. The Executive Bookshelf section joins family, friends, and stakeholders to celebrate Pastor Nyaknno Osso’s turn of three scores and ten. Here is the official review of his book by his Newswatch colleague.
BOOK REVIEW
The boy who loves books
By Dare Babarinsa
Nyaknno Osso (2024), Against All Odds, My Testimony. Abuja: Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation.
Being a review of the autobiography of Nigeria’s Legendary Librarian, Nyaknno Osso, titled AGAINST ALL ODDS, MY TESTIMONY, By Dare Babarinsa, August 31, 2024, during the 70th Birthday Anniversary of the brand-new author.
Nyaknno Osso’s life is an adventure in the search for knowledge.
He grew up as his mother’s only child. Then destiny seized him and escorted him on a life journey that would take him to all the corners of the earth, dining and wining with the high and mighty and ultimately leading him into self-discovery as a child of God who has been favoured in many unique ways.
Osso has revealed his true self in this enthralling autobiography, Against All Odds, My Testimony, published by Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation. In this 400-page book, you will discover that Osso is a long-distance runner who started from a genuinely humble beginning to become a man of global consequences.
Fate singled him out from the start. How can he be the only child that survived out of eight children if not the hand of a benevolent fate? His parents, afraid that he may suffer the same fate as his older siblings, gave him the name NyaknnoAbasi, which means “I leave him in the hand of God”.
It was a prophetic name that seemed to have guided Osso’s life adventures. His uncle wanted him to be a doctor, but he wanted to be a soldier instead. He was admitted to the Nigeria Defence Academy through its commandant, the late Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo. God chose a different path for him, and our country and humanity are more prosperous.
Osso is not a man to boast about his achievements, and this book is written in the plain language of a seasoned journalist. There is no bombastic, no beating of the chest and no flourish. Just be ready to be entertained with facts and information.
After working with journalists for many decades, Osso has imbibed the reporter’s skill of just plain reporting. It is the simplicity of this book that is so engaging and enthralling. You cannot put it down once you begin. It is an autobiography but also a bit of our country’s fascinating contemporary history, the sociology of his native people of Akwa-Ibom State and a classic exploration of the power-play in Nigeria with the ebullient and enigmatic General Olusegun Obasanjo at the centre of this narrative.
As a young man searching for his future, Osso was invited to Ibadan by his uncle, a university teacher. His uncle wanted him to become a doctor, but Osso drifted into information science. He loves books and thus begins a lifelong romance with the library.
In Ibadan, he met many interesting people. He learnt to become a disc jockey, like the unforgettable Tunji Marquis and Alex Conde, both of the Western Nigerian Broadcasting Service, WNBS, Ibadan. He enjoyed the high life. But then, in 1975, he took a trip to Calabar on the promise that he would get a job in the library of the new University of Calabar, but instead got a job with the public library where the great Ray Ekpu, then editor of the Sunday Chronicle, happened on him one day.
Osso was precocious, even daring. He accosted Ekpu and gave him information that struck an unforgettable chord. “I know your girlfriend in Ibadan, Uyai,” he told Ekpu. “She says you are going to marry her.” Simple; straightforward. That is Osso in a single sentence.
Thus began a lifelong friendship and mentorship. Ekpu was invited to join the Federal Government-owned Daily Times by President Shehu Shagari on the recommendation of Governor Clement Isong of the then Cross River State. Ekpu became the editor of the highly-rated Sunday Times, and his sun shone across the land from that pedestal. He was cerebral, engaging, daring, informed and fearless. His Sunday column was a must-read, and the circulation figure of the Sunday Times soared.
But the paper owners were displeased and decided to knock him off his high horse. They posted him to edit the staid Business Times. Even then, he resumed his irreverent column in the Business Times until he was forced to resign and took employment with the Concord Group of Newspapers, where he served as the editorial board chairman. It was at the Concord that Ekpu teamed up with two other editors, Yakubu Mohammed of the National Concord and Dele Giwa of the Sunday Concord, to start the pioneering news weekly, Newswatch, with Dan Agbese from the New Nigerian stable.
With Newswatch incubating in 1984, Ekpu told his colleagues that Osso was the man to make a difference. Giwa travelled to Calabar and brought him in tow, insisting that Osso must start work immediately to build the best media library in Nigeria. Osso was the first staff member employed by Newswatch and perhaps the best. He pioneered the practice of the library opening almost 24 hours daily, especially during the production period. He would be the first in the office in the morning and the last to leave.
Newswatch understood the critical role of accurate information in the enterprise’s success. To learn more and bring home the trophy, Osso was sent to the best media houses in the world. During those tours, he met many media legends, including Lance Morrow of TIME magazine.
He had many unforgettable moments in Newswatch. He also produced and edited the excellent book Newswatch Who is Who, which won him worldwide acclaim.
One day in 1986. Osso had gone to the office and met Giwa in a sad mood. He had just returned from a disturbing interview with the State Security Service, SSS, at Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. “My brother, I don’t know why anyone would want to kill me,” Giwa lamented. The following day, Giwa was killed by a parcel bomb.
Newswatch allowed him to meet General Obasanjo, who had retired to his farm in Otta, Ogun State after he served as Nigeria’s military Head of State. The meeting changed the course of Nigerian history and Osso’s odyssey. During their first meeting, the general was surprised when Osso brought 20 information files about him (Obasanjo) to his Otta farm. Osso’s fame spread rapidly as a first-class media librarian, and Obasanjo was not alone in courting his friendship.
In 1991, he was invited to work with a Nigerian Head of State and was offered an initial payment of 10 million naira, a princely sum. He was advised to return the money. He did not join the team. After General Sani Abacha seized power, Osso was invited to head the national library. “Please don’t go, “Obasanjo advised him. “They would frustrate you. They would reduce you to nothing!”
He declined the offer.
Then Abacha decided to reduce Obasanjo to nothing. It was a dark period for Nigeria and the author until Abacha died suddenly in 1998. Obasanjo rose from prison to become the landlord of Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja. Osso was with him throughout his eight years in power.
The idea of the first Presidential Library in Africa took form then. Today, the Olusegun Obasanjo President Library, OOP, is standing on many acres of land in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State. It is a lasting monument to Osso’s service to Nigeria and humanity. His ideas and efforts made the library possible.
The village boy from Ete, Akwa Ibom State, has done well.
Dare Babarinsa is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Gaskia Media Ltd.
TRIBUTE
NyaknnoAbasi Osso: The Search Engine Before Google
“Libraries store the energies that fuel the imagination. They open windows to the world and inspire us to explore, achieve and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better” Sydney Sheldon.
When I chose Mass Communications over Medicine, I had been so impacted by the Nigerian Chronicle published by the Cross River State Newspaper Corporation, Calabar, that hanging a stethoscope around my neck lost its appeal. My father loved it and through him, I got ‘familiar’ with names like Nelson Etukudo, Ray Ekpu, Martins Usenekong, Antigha Bassey, Clement Ebri, Etim Anim and Signor Tofu (pen name for Elder Onofiok Ufot, multi-talented father of advertising great, Udeme Ufot, who at the time, was registrar of the University of Calabar), all great writers of the time.
If that newspaper was great, it owed a lot to its library and the work of the man who started and ran it, Nnyaknnoabasi Osso, Nigeria’s leading documentation specialist, whose birthday we celebrate today.
Nyaknno founded the Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation (BLERF). He previously served as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Library, Research, and Documentation and as the Chief Librarian at Newswatch, where he published the groundbreaking Newswatch Who’s Who, a definitive biographical documentation of distinguished Nigerian achievers in all walks of life. He has been a friend and mentor for most of my life.
Over the years, Nyaknno has invested his entire life and resources in collecting, assembling, and managing millions of books, journals, newspapers, magazines, and documents in a way no other Nigerian has. His home and offices in Abuja are filled with rare historical resources and reference materials fit for national archives.
BLERF has grown out of his passion for documenting our past through the lives and biographies of millions of Nigerian achievers so we can take lessons into our future in a country where only little value is given to proper record keeping and preservation of historical documents and where public and private libraries have been closed
The celebrated Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta is his brainchild. Twenty-five years of his life and capacity are expressed in that Centre’s beauty, content, and rich treasures. It was his primary preoccupation from 1988 to 2013.
His current project, BLERF, is a world-class news media research centre. Nyaknno funds it from his resources. It boasts rich collections of over two million books, journals, bound volumes of newspapers, magazines, clippings, rare photographs, CDs, flashes, and hard drives collected since 1971.
His dream for the centre is more extensive than his purse, which slows his speed at converting the idea to reality. BLERF’s website (www.blerf.org) has nearly 35,000 names and is the most comprehensive collection of Nigerian achievers worldwide. The target is to grow the list to one million within five years. Such an enormous documentation project will require partnership and CSR investments to bring to life. Without a robust financial partnership, this will only remain a dream.
I must have met Nyaknno around 1982 and was immediately struck by his love for everything in print! I spent an eternity in his office, receiving scant attention as he read and marked page after page of various local, national and foreign publications before him. He would throw a question at me with his trademark laughter while his head lay buried in his work. The traffic in and out of his office was heavy. I soon learned it was production time, and many reporters, writers, and editors needed his input for the next day’s paper. I quickly figured it wasn’t a glamorous job in the newspaper publishing ecosystem and wondered why this smart and intelligent young man chose such a career path.
Nyaknno’s story involves discovering his passion early and relentlessly pursuing it. It’s been a life of big dreams, intellectual adventures, and an uncanny ability to strike the right connection at the right time.
As an only child of parents who had buried seven children before him, childhood meant extreme protection. But when he saw other children playing in the school field across from his home, he dressed up, joined them and earned himself a place in primary school. While the Bible and the Catholic Digest introduced him to serious reading in secondary school – where his love for history once made him write out 72 pages at a school history examination- it was his first day at a gap job while awaiting admission to study medicine at the University of Ibadan that got him hooked on books.
When he left his village of Ete in Ikot Abasi local government area of present-day Akwa Ibom State to join his uncle, the late Prof Jumbo Udo, at the University of Ibadan, the plan was to enrol at the University of Ibadan College of Medicine. He wrote the exams, and the gap job at the University Library was to keep him busy. On his first day at work, the University Librarian chased him home at midnight. He had found his passion, and nothing would stand in his way. That was in 1971. Out went Medicine to the protestation of his Uncle and family.
Throughout his life, providence has always positioned him in the path of opportunity. He didn’t imagine media librarianship when he left Ibadan to join the newly established University of Nigeria Calabar Campus. A chance meeting with Ray Ekpu at the Cross River State Library, Calabar, did it for him. An introduction and candid opinion that Ray’s writings could benefit from in-depth research earned Nyaknno the job of setting up and running the library at the Nigerian Chronicle. Ray would later introduce Nyaknno to Dele Giwa in 1980.
There’s an exciting story about how Nyaknno joined Newswatch. Giwa, in the company of the late Chief Ime Umanah, had arrived at his home at lunchtime one Sunday in July 1984. There were no pleasantries, just a simple instruction from the man he so admired. “Get dressed immediately. We are going to Lagos to start a magazine called Newswatch.” A few hours later, the trio boarded a Nigerian Airways flight to Lagos. Newswatch found its engine room. Nyaknno got himself a playing field that came to define his career trajectory.
In those days without computers and the Internet, Nyaknno was the search engine that powered search, quality content, and the award-winning journalism Newswatch came to be known for. How he did it so well can only be summed up in the inspiration he drew from a meeting and handshake with Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon: Lasting legacies are built by doing what no one else has done before!
Nyaknno has interned or visited hundreds of major libraries across the world, so you can understand the pain he feels when he speaks about the dearth of public libraries in Nigeria. He wants Nigeria to return to building public libraries to speed up the development of our young people. As Bill Gates puts it, “investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation’s future.”
It would be a fitting tribute to Nyaknno for governments, individuals and corporations to commit to funding public libraries and supporting laudable private initiatives like BLERF so they in turn, can, like Sydney Sheldon said, inspire us to explore and achieve and
improve the quality of our national life.
Utibe Ukim is a journalist, writer and media entrepreneur.
OPEN MIC POETRY
The Press On The Wings Of Truth
by Chimamaka Adeniyi
They say to start every rhetoric with a question
Well, my question is
For anyone who is paying attention –
Can the truth be compromised for peace?
Should mediocrity and complacency be encouraged
so that there are no raised eyebrows?
This is the question we should ask ourselves before we turn that camera on
As regards the state of our nation
Before we put pen to paper
May we remember
That sacrificing the truth for our comfort
Makes us consort to the corruption that we complain of
As media moguls, we tend to undermine
our position in the hierarchy of country-building
But the masses consume media like a smoker takes in ganja
And the product of our occupation is an addiction for the 21st-century digital drinker
So, it is a fact that we are high up the influential ladder
Our art is their voice; our voice is the gramophone that amplifies their choice.
And even so, in our pens and viewfinders
Do they find their views and pen their perceptions
Of the government, of our culture, of our social predicament
So, we must be intentional
I learned in secondary school that the press is the intermediary between the people and their luminary
The armour of advocacy
Watchdog, vigilante of the democracy
The CCTV for every situation they are in or have been
How loud do we scream when their peace is endangered?
How often do we hold our lips to remain unbothered?
Or change our ink to tickle some feathers
Only the truth will set us free
Whether it is EndSars, or Biafra, or Occupy Nigeria
The media has always been the sustainer of hope
Amongst a people that grope for light under a bushel
For if the cameras and the radios were off, then so would our vocal cords
But worse off, if the papers told lies
Then, the veil would be pulled over our eyes
And we would sleep in the bliss of ignorance
Only for our giant to bend its knees
To the sweet siren of anarchy
Let it never be said that a generation
As empowered as ours
Failed our nation
Because the media didn’t mind
And left its dependents deaf, dumb and blind
Assailants to the enlightenment of the mere man
And accountability of the governance
Because we were too scared to stand up to authority
Too timid to carry out our responsibility
So, we let the plague continue to spread
Creating facades of peaceful living with our recording, our writing, our speaking
Whilst the locust of corruption eats deep
Digs into this confluence
Because those who had influence
Decided to remain silent
My question remains
Can we compromise the truth for peace?
And I will answer like this;
There is no peace without truth
For peace is not just the absence of conflict
But the presence of equity and justice
And if we run away from our proper duty
To maintain a thick, foggy,
deceitful image of stability
Then we have done it wrong
The voice of the voiceless
Pillar of fire in the wilderness
Will uphold its identity with honesty
With integrity and creativity
Putting out positive narratives
But not neglecting real tragedies
Because the last thing we want is for the media to promote insensitivity as optimism
Saying no to mediocrity in storytelling
Refusing to enable entities that sow discord
Working tactfully for the benefit of all who hope for our nation,
and ourselves
Deciding critically, criticising constructively,
Prioritising the stability of our country
It is when we have done all these that we are guaranteed
To have played our part in the task of nation-building
It is when we have embraced its importance
And not sacrifice it upon the altar of convenience
That the truth will finally set us free.
MS Adeniyi performed this poem at the 2nd Pan Atlantic University Media Roundtable on Thursday, 13 September 2024.
