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Nigeria, Sept. 28 -- He was a foundation member of the team that set up pacesetting Newswatch magazine, published by the trio of Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu and Yakubu Mohammed. Nyaknno Osso was the Librarian and later Editor of the celebrated "Newswatch's Who Is Who In Nigeria."
For over 25 years, he said he worked closely with former President Olusegun Obasanjo to set up the Obasanjo Presidential Library.
In this interview, Mr Osso spoke with our Business & Economy Editor, Bassey Udo, in his residence in Abuja about these years and personalities as well as his new national legacy project spearheaded by his Foundation, the Biographical Legacy & Research Foundation (BLERF).
Excerpt:
PT: As the former Editor of the "Newswatch Who Is Who", how did you come by the idea?
Nyaknno: When Newswatch magazine was to be established, Dele Giwa, Founding Editor, was in Calabar to see his friend, Ray Ekpu, at the Nigerian Chronicle where I worked as the Head of the Library Department.
After Giwa met me, he later told Ray, my boss and mentor, that he had discovered someone he would invite to join the foundation team at Newswatch they were planning to set up then. He acknowledged I was the best in what I was doing.
Giwa said Newswatch was going to be like Time magazine and would require a lot of research and documentation. Therefore, they would count on my library experience.
When I got to Lagos in July 1984, our first assignment was for us to brainstorm for several hours as we began the planning to for the birth of Newswatch.
At the end, we decided to do a comprehensive documentation of the subject areas Newswatch magazine might be dealing with when it starts publication.
We got about 1,000 subject areas that bordered on background information materials to enable Newswatch start-off.
My assignment was to spend about six months travelling around Nigeria and the world gathering background information and materials on all subjects.
I went to Financial Times, BBC, New York Times, Time, Washington Post, CNN, British Museum in London, Newspaper Library in Colindale and other places.
At the end of the trip, I came back with so much information about all sorts of subjects that was more than...