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In his chosen career path, Nyaknnoabasi Osso needs little or no introduction, particularly among the older generation of Nigerians. His addiction to books, research and documentation is legendary.
He was a foundation member of the team that set up the pacesetting Newswatch magazine, published by Dele Giwa (late), Ray Ekpu and Yakubu Mohammed. Osso was the Librarian and later Editor of the celebrated Newswatch’s Who Is Who In Nigeria.
In his over 50 years in private and public employment, he has straddled the library, information and knowledge management industry like a colossus.
For over 25 years, he worked closely with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, cimaxing with the setting up of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL).
No such library existed anywhere in Africa, prior to the establishment of the OOPL, which was his brainchild.
Ahead of OOPL’s establishment, Osso visited many presidential libraries in the United States of America to understudy the kind of library he envisioned for the former president.
Even as the Newswatch brand appears to have faded into oblivion, and OOPL consummated, he has remained relevant in what has become his forte–library, information and knowledge management.
Besides his 13-room fully-stocked personal library in the heart of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, he has delved into what is probably the most ambitious and challenging task of his illustrious career.
That project is not only dear to him, but is seemingly sapping virtually his every resource. He has continued to make a huge financial, mental, physical, emotional and even spiritual investment in a one-stop, first-in-Nigeria biographical information database; a Who’s Who of all times.
It’s designed to showcase Nigeria’s achievers and heroes, home and abroad, dead or alive, dating back to 1861 when Britain annexed Lagos as a colony.
According to Osso, the biographical information database...