Entrenchment at the mountaintop, By Chuks Iloegbunam

Without doubt, Nyaknno Osso is at the mountaintop of his life’s work. Apart from other toils, he even had to sell his Abuja property to get there. Spectacularly, he has for a decade now offered his library services free of charge to knowledge seekers around the globe. What remains now is to ensure that he is entrenched at the mountaintop.
Imponderable time. It is the only thing constant in human affairs. It flies on, irrespective of every concern. Was it not only “yesterday” – 27 August, 2021 – that we celebrated Nyaknno Osso’s 67^th birthday, using the occasion as a handle to sing about his accomplishment as a leading Nigerian librarian? Yet, we are back at it again today for he has added another year to his God-given span on Mother Earth. Nonetheless, we discuss Mr Osso today, not majorly on the number of hours he has added since the last time he was our topic of general discussion. No. Our attention has now turned to the existential – in a manner of speaking. Before that, however, we may review what was said during our last time out on the man.
This was what I wrote in an article entitled “Toast To A Great Librarian”: “Well, it is often said that all dance settles in the waist. Nnyaknno had started with library work at the University of Ibadan in 1971. He later transferred his services to Cross River State. He became the librarian of the Chronicle newspaper at the “insistence” of Ray Ekpu who was then the newspaper’s editor. There, a chance meeting with Dele Giwa who, on a visit to Calabar had sought information for his weekly Concord column, “Parallax Snaps”, left the seasoned and stylish journalist impressed. When Newswatch magazine was established in 1985, Giwa and Ekpu dragged Nnyaknno along with them to set up the magazine’s library. Nnyaknno’s work took him to and through all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria in search of libraries and information. He visited most parts of the world, touring presidential libraries and acquiring additional knowledge from titans in the field. He has left an indelible legacy in the establishment of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library. He has readily fed all our voracious appetites for information over the years. But, all through that extended vista of his professional life, he had operated as an employee.”
Others had their says also. I crave the readers’ indulgence to reproduce some of their views. This was Dare Babarinsa, in The Guardian of 25 November, 2021: “There are still people in Nigeria who live mainly by the written word. That is the lot of Nyaknno Osso, who was our pioneer librarian at the old Newswatch. After 50 years as a librarian, Osso is not about to retire. He is now at the centre of an information revolution, trying to gather biographical information on thousands of Nigerians working through his Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation (BLERF), which has information on prominent Nigerians from 1861 till the present day. His library is available on the Internet. Despite his humble nature and self-effacing personality, Osso has affected Nigeria more than any other librarian. He is indeed, Nigeria’s most successful bibliophile.”
Celebrated Architect, Chukwudi Eze, of the prestigious Columbia University, New York, USA, said, “Osso is one of Africa’s most distinguished Librarians”. Writing about Osso recently, Taiwo Obe, a famed Nigerian journalist and founder of the Journalism Clinic, described Osso as “one of the world’s greatest librarians”. Yakubu Mohammed, former Managing Editor of Newswatch magazine said Osso is “one man I know that is married to his profession.”
And this, from Anietie Usen: “The ordinary librarian is concerned with the arrangement of books in the library. But Nyaknno Osso, who is 50 years today in the library profession, is not ordinary. His peers consider him extraordinary and he is. He is sold out to books, research and documentation. Once he steps into any library, whether in Nigeria, the United Kingdom or the United States, he is not concerned about the arrangement of books, but the content of books. This is precisely what has secured him the cutting age that is rare in the annals of his profession. As a librarian, he is entirely in a class of his own, unequalled in excellence, diligence, rigour and performance. Dele Giwa, the legendary American-trained, Nigerian editor and co-founder of the phenomenal Newswatch magazine, described him as “the best of the best”. Celebrated Architect, Chukwudi Eze, of the prestigious Columbia University, New York, USA, said, “Osso is one of Africa’s most distinguished Librarians”. Writing about Osso recently, Taiwo Obe, a famed Nigerian journalist and founder of the Journalism Clinic, described Osso as “one of the world’s greatest librarians”. Yakubu Mohammed, former Managing Editor of Newswatch magazine said Osso is “one man I know that is married to his profession.”
Even ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo joined in the showering of encomiums: “I have always known that one of Nigeria’s national weaknesses is poor record keeping and inadequate attention to institutional memory. About mid-1980s, I started a conversation with Nyaknno Osso, a Librarian by training who had worked for Newswatch magazine, on keeping what could be kept, restoring what could be restored and preserving what could be preserved. Some materials from the Nigerian Civil War, which were already deteriorating were microfilmed. After some lost ground and lost opportunities, Nyaknno and I belatedly began the recovery, restoration, preservation, storage, and acquisition of other materials and records…The work we did before I was sent to prison remained intact. On my release from prison, I reconnected with Nyaknno, to continue with our work of recovering, restoring, preserving and storing. As soon as the possibility of my venturing into politics became a reality, Nyaknno joined me. On my inauguration, Nyaknno was one of the first appointed as Special Assistants and remained so until the end of my second term in 2007. His assignment was simple – to continue what we started, to ensure availability of records and to promote institutional memory.”
In all, Nyaknno spent 25 years with Chief Obasanjo, to bring about the first and only Presidential Library to Africa. As Dr Usoro Ekitok, a medical practitioner and high school classmate of Nyaknno’s pithily said, “It takes a great and organised mind, to organise a great library.” Without doubt, Nyaknno Osso is at the mountaintop of his life’s work. Apart from other toils, he even had to sell his Abuja property to get there. Spectacularly, he has for a decade now offered his library services free of charge to knowledge seekers around the globe. What remains now is to ensure that he is entrenched at the mountaintop. That is why this riff – Who will please give me a hand, so I can stand, not to fall? – from Sunny Okosuns hit single Help, seems right now to be coming straight from the calm, modulated voice of Nyaknno Osso. That is also why he made an appeal that is reproduced here:
If I know Nigeria, I can say without fear of contradiction that its nationals are always eager to support a worthy cause. I have no doubt that individuals that have the means, and organisations at home with the imperative of corporate social responsibilities will make haste to accord financial assistance to BLERF. It is a dream come true, one that must sustain, and a mountaintop from which no toppling can ever be contemplated, let alone allowed.
Nnyaknno Osso: An Appeal For Urgent Support/Donations.

For close to 10 years now, we at the Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation (blerf.org) (publishers of WHO’S WHO IN NIGERIA, 1861-2022, ONLINE) have served as Nigeria’s most reliable authority on biographical information on Nigerians worldwide. We have carried out this exemplary service free of charge!

Biographical information is an area which individuals and governments are conscious of. However, many lack the passion to venture into this virgin field, which forms a core part of historical documentation, as well as nation building.
In sum, we are engaged in research, which documents Nigeria’s history, by focusing on the lives of its citizens. WHO’S WHO can be seen as a census of Nigeria’s achievers. In April 2022 over 50,000 persons used information from our website. This clearly indicates that awareness of our work is growing.
We are moving into our second decade and this presents a number of challenges: The population of the country is increasing, and every day Nigerians are excelling in many fields, and breaking records.
There is, therefore, much ground to cover, to research into and to document, not to talk of capacity building, and the purchase of new computer systems, ideal for the storage of vast amounts of information.
Against this background, we seek for urgent financial support/donations to sustain several critical aspects of our operations:

Sustain our over 150 years of research from 1861 to the present.
Expand our geographical scope and institutional spread.
Maintain our daily update of entries.
Keep our richest well searched & researched /rich website (org) afloat.
Fund our necessary travels, communications, administration and power.
And purchase of computers with vast capacity for information storage.

We sincerely appreciate your donations.

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If I know Nigeria, I can say without fear of contradiction that its nationals are always eager to support a worthy cause. I have no doubt that individuals that have the means, and organisations at home with the imperative of corporate social responsibilities will make haste to accord financial assistance to BLERF. It is a dream come true, one that must sustain, and a mountaintop from which no toppling can ever be contemplated, let alone allowed.
Chuks Iloegbunam is a biographer and author.

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