Nnyaknnoabasi and BLERF: This idea must not die, By Sam Akpe

For someone who has spent 51 years as an active librarian and has been involved in research and documentation at the highest level and in institutions around the world, Nyaknnoabasi has worked on a legacy project that requires a national investment intervention to make it a reality. This is the BLERF—Biographical Legacy & Research Foundation (blerf.org).

He's my neighbor. We visit each other quite often. But I made more visits than him. I still remember the day I received the first phone call from him. I was out of town. He told me he was calling from outside my apartment. After he mentioned his name, I froze at being visited by him.

At that time, he had just moved into the building next to mine. He told me with a laugh that now, since we were neighbors, I wouldn't be able to run too far from him. His name is Nnyaknnoabasi Osso, the man who brought the first presidential library to Africa. Today is his birthday.

Nnyaknnoabasi has a reputation bigger than himself. I didn't say he was short. It's just that dynamites, as the saying goes, usually come in small packages. His fame was conceived on his birthday in 1971, when he was introduced to the profession of librarianship, knowledge and information management. This is the day he got a job as a children's library assistant at the University of Ibadan.

His story would have ended in this library if, after his studies in the same institution, he had not met Professor Donald Ekong, First Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar. Ekong offered him a job at the university, but God had other plans.

As Nyaknnoabasi arrived in Calabar the following week to accept the job offer, he met the legendary Ray Ekpu who found him employed at the Nigerian Chronicle to start a library. Ray has arranged for him to receive media library experiences at some of the top news organizations in Britain and the United States.

It was through Uncle Ray that Nnyaknnoabasi met the late Dele Giwa. For those familiar with Ray and Dele's relationship, it wouldn't make much noise that Nnyaknnoabasi ended up at Newswatch magazine, co-founded by the two journalists. Dele personally traveled to Calabar to grab it from the Nigerian Chronicle.

Nyaknnoabasi was already a star in the media scene before joining Newswatch, where he became a celebrity. It was at Newswatch that he wrote Nigeria's first authentic biographical book, Newswatch's Who's Who in Nigeria in 1987. It was and still is an award-winning book.

Always full of ideas, one day, through what could be described as a divine arrangement, Nyaknnoabasi met Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. It marked a turning point in his life, as did his first encounter with Uncle Ray. He became Obasanjo's researcher.