NYAKNNO OSSO: CELEBRATING A PATHFINDER

Kammonke Abam pays tribute to Osso, an exemplary librarian

The echoes of the name “Nyaknno Osso” transcends what represents the biographical information landscape of Nigeria but reverberates across the Atlantic as a reference point in research and documentation.

His name also evokes spirited efforts to lead brilliant clans of librarians, media researchers, documentarists, and biographers to curate and preserve Nigeria’s ancient history and beyond.

He can rightly be described as the contemporary father of documentation and information management in Nigeria. He is a Czar in that genre of discipline.

Nyaknno is a reference point in newspaper library management who had climbed up the ladder in his career to establish and become his headship of Newswatch Newsmedia Research centre, an establishment that was rated the best in Nigeria. It’s important to note that Newswatch was a revolutionary journalistic expression of young vibrant Nigerians led by the fiery Dele Giwa and irrepressible Ray Ekpu in the 80s and 90s.

At the behest of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and US ambassador to Nigeria at the time, Ambassador Howard F. Jeter, Nyaknno went on a study tour of all the presidential libraries in America, the first and only Nigerian to do so. From that experience, he initiated and operated the first presidential library in Africa, the state-of-the-art Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State, again, the only presidential library in Nigeria’s 63 years history. In addition, he was the first man to be appointed Special Assistant to the President on Library,  Research and Documentation in Nigeria, 1999-2007.

He is also the man who set up the first Aso Rock Library  located at the Pilot Gate, Aso Rock.

Among his other career accomplishments are: one, setting up the ‘ Best Newspaper Library at Cross River Newspaper Corporation, Calabar, 1975-1984; two, established the Best Newsmedia Research Library at Newswatch Magazine, Ikeja, Lagos, 1984- 1998; three, published the first authoritative, dependable,  world-acclaimed Biographical Encyclopedia for Nigeria (Newswatch WHO’S WHO IN NIGERIA, 1990); four, initiated with the former President of Nigeria,  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo  to bring the First Presidential Library from the United States of America to Africa; five,

 against all odds, published the writings of DELE GIWA, first Nigerian journalist to be assassinated via a letter bomb, entitled: ” PARALLAX SNAPS: THE WRITINGS OF DELE GIWA”(1998).

 He is currently, CEO at Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation (BLERF) and Editor-in-Chief,  BLERF’S WHO’S WHO IN NIGERIA, 1861-2023 (ONLINE) (www.blerf.org), the First Online WHO’S WHO IN NIGERIA.

 For his research in library, research, knowledge and information management,  he was conferred with a Doctor of Philosophy degree – PhD ( Honoris Causa) by the African American university, in September 2022.

Nyaknno is a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). His life-long mentor has been Professor (Mrs) Felicia Adetowun Ogunsheye, his former Head of Department at the Library School, University of Ibadan, who later  became the first Nigerian woman to become a Professor.

 Abam is a writer, author, journalist, biographer, innovative media strategist and CEO, Profiles & Biographies