OSSO INVITES AFRICA TO ITS FUTURE
Okko’Uromu Olumhense pays tribute to Nyaknno Osso, a librarian of note
When you come in contact with Nyaknno Osso, be prepared to learn. Not because he is a professional teacher, much less an overbearing one. Rather, it is because the man has voracious appetite for learning and articulation himself. To his credit as a serial pioneer of incredible credentials, he adds the temperament of an unapologetically meticulous editor. His ideas and projects are veritable excursions in progressive thinking and creativity. Nothing tells that story better than the successes registered by his pioneering efforts in information research, documentation and storage. He holds, almost exclusively, bragging rights to many such projects that have affected the lives and professional advancements and enhancements of so many.
When you speak with him or pick through the exhaustive amount of time and energy it must take to successfully undertake the projects he has been involved in over the years, you wonder if he has enough time to slow down for his birthday.
Osso’s sense of purpose and clarity of mind about his latest project, BLERF, the Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation, is a bewitching insight into the man and his vision. “The aim is to create an unrivalled, authentic, comprehensive and authoritative source of biographical data which would be automatically updated on a daily basis.” Even as we celebrate his birthday, the event is hardly about him. Rather, it is about what he stands for and where he wants to take Nigeria, indeed Africa, a compelling drive that has lasted him an entire lifetime. But then, you read this: “The Foundation has already collated, verified and documented in multiple formats, the biographical information of over one million Nigerians spanning over a century of Nigeria’s existence both at home and abroad.” It becomes clear that we must celebrate one of our own. Even clearer and more compelling, is the fact that it is practically impossible to celebrate the sterling projects with which he has come to enrich our national psyche.
The concept of biography, as research and documentation medium, bestrides the intersection where the lives of people and the events that stir, propel and direct ideas in society, engage one another, to provide very unique insights into the soul of that society. That intersection is resonant with inspiration and plenty of work and that is where you find Osso. In the vision, mission and insights encapsulated by BLERF, Osso demonstrates, at a rare level of eclecticism, the fact that a society must properly articulate and utilize that opportunity to drive development. There is next to nothing a nation can achieve if it fails to accurately and adequately document itself in organized ways and on a continual basis. That is why, Osso says, the idea of BLERF is designed to secure an enduring institutional legacy that fosters that role.
The project is as enormous as it is unprecedented in scope and it is very ambitious. In April 2022 alone, over 50,000 people sourced information from its website. The demand is escalating. Yet through its 10 years of existence, BLERF has offered these services free. It is a critical juncture: To serve as “Nigeria’s most reliable authority on biographical information on Nigerians worldwide,” and offer its services free. The role and tasks thereof, automatically justify the call for financial and material assistance in an undeniably authentic way. Yet Osso is as humble as he has always been known to strangers and friends: “We’re aiming at 1, 000,000 entries by 2023/2024. That’s why we need your urgent support,” he offers with a firm tone of commitment. This need and the call constitute a gift of rebirth. It is Osso’s gift to Nigeria and Africa, to witness the birth of its renewal and future development. With over 50 years of his life spent developing this field, his own birthday this week, provides a worthy and reflective anchor to remind everyone how strategically fecund the project is to Africa. BLERF’s appeal is a cry for Africa to fully understand how its future development will be determined, if indeed, it desires to go there. Even better, it is an invitation for Africa to midwife its own rebirth. As he sees it, it is time for Nigeria and Africa to accept that information and documentation is the fulcrum of all development efforts, planning and stability.
In the information business, Mr Osso is a leader in prescient organizing and harmonizing of ideas, projects and processes in the delivery of results. On a regular Nigerian day, an Osso should sit back and be very comfortable to exercise a right to exhilaration and contentedness over his achievements. Not this one. On the contrary, he is often more evasive about his achievements and more animated when he points his listeners to what work and possibilities lie ahead. For Nigerians as individual persons, for the country and for Africa. His 51 years in the business notwithstanding, you cannot miss his intense capacity to listen, accuracy of recall or the clarity of his vision and then, of course, his infectious sense of purpose and optimism. Multiply those by his ability to downplay his achievements and his humility of approach and you begin to understand why he is able to kindle the enthusiasm that his projects have continued to generate. As part of BLERF, he has already produced another first. Osso has fired an incredible rocket into the professional and leadership space. Women: Who’s Who In Nigeria is in high demand. Amidst Nigeria’s still largely patriarchal temperament, women have continued to rise steadily into positions of leadership in various professions. Osso didn’t just notice the trend. He has meticulously monitored and recorded the heartbeat of this trend for years. Now through the efforts of BLERF, Nigerian women have served notice to Africa and the world. The entries speak in an unmistakably strident tone to Africa and the world: Nigerian women are capable of world class leadership and can compete against anyone in the world. On Osso’s watch, it was time. They have arrived.
BLERF’s appeal for assistance resonates with the clarity of the very personality behind it. It reads: “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, research into, not to talk of capacity building, and the purchase of new computer systems, ideal for storage of vast information.”
Osso shot into national fame after he agreed to serve as librarian to the old Newswatch magazine. He successfully built what became the best news media library in the country. He has since served up many enviable and inspiring firsts in projects such as Who’s Who in Nigeria, a publication which has received worldwide acclaim; the President Obasanjo library, which he initiated and established, is monumental first in Africa. These days, many of us are more willing to talk about the staggering achievements he has registered in other such projects as Women’s Who’s Who in Nigeria than he is willing to comment on them.
I first met Nyaknno long before he arrived at Newswatch. This was not in person and it wasn’t by phone either. It was at a time when many publishers didn’t have phones in their newsrooms. To interpret his career efforts and sense of purpose accurately, his arrival at Newswatch does not mark the birth of his vision. His drive for and pursuit of organized information and its delivery as the road to development dates further than that. Before Newswatch, he was already the undeniable library wizard behind the success of the Chronicle newspaper in Cross River State in the 1980’s.
One day in 1983, my older brother, Sonala, returned from the annual meeting of the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Calabar and was on fire about a certain guy who worked for the Chronical newspaper, someone he couldn’t wait to bring to Lagos. He wanted Nyaknno at the Guardian newspaper where he worked as editorial board member. The Guardian was in its ascendancy and Sonala, as Editorial Page Editor also doubled as Ombudsman and the role to define and own the house style was on his shoulders. He wanted the best. Sonala figured very clearly that Nyaknno’s unparalled grasp of documentation, level of organization, professional accuracy, his meticulous appetite for translating information to usable news, would launch the paper into a class of quality news delivery never before seen in these parts. It would be a hat trick in Nigerian journalism. He spoke relentlessly about what a great move this would be. His own eye-witness experience in Calabar was all he needed. Then he missed his target. But even as a miss, it authenticated his conclusions about Osso’s research and documentation skills, and professional ruggedness. Dele Giwa, late founding editor of the old Newswatch, got there first. He beat the Guardian to the prize. For many months after, my brother could hardly forgive himself.
Osso’s first impression on the very professionally demanding Giwa came as a rather rude but pleasant shock to the late journalist. He too had been attending the annual meeting of the Nigerian Guild of Editors when both first met. (I can add three sentences here to complete the Dele anecdote). But Osso has been a blessing of the news media industry and beyond, a conclusion no one can deny. Osso has since become the doyen and gold standard of the information collection and documentation in Nigeria’s information and knowledge industry. Yet and always, he sounds like he has only just begun.
Olumhense, a Journalist, writes from the United States
