"Yes. You may not believe it but the truth is that I have written 11 books since 17 years ago when I went blind. In all, I have rolled out 21 books - the most recent is entitled, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu: Ojukwu: The People's General. It is my 11th book since I became blind and I am still working on others.
I am only praying for God to give me life, strength and wisdom", he told Education Review. Indeed, everything about Osuji seems to be both mystical and symbolic. How could a blind man publish as many as 11 books when intellectuals with their two eyes intact struggle to write even one? In fact, how does he go about it?
Osuji explains; "I was among those who took education very seriously and you understand what I mean. I taught myself how to type, using the manual typewriter and today, it has turned to be very useful. Beside the books I have written, I am also a columnist with the Sunday Independent newspaper and I use my manual typewriter for all my works.
A good and well-trained typist doesn't need to see the characters on the keyboard before he uses the typewriter because the keyboard has a formula", he explained. Revealing that he has mustered up courage and determination so that his present situation does not prove an impediment in whatever form, Osuji said; "You see, I can tell you that my background really prepared me adequately for my present challenges.
Look at what I mean. I am one of those struggling Nigerians who never had the opportunity of post-primary education but still went ahead to attain a high academic level.
For the records, I was born at Ihitteafoukwu in Ekwerazu in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State".
If Osuji said he never had a secondary education, how then did he acquire his PhD degree?
Once again, he graphically stated how he went about it. According to him; "I attended the University of London briefly between 1965 and 1966. I gained the admission with GCE Ordinary and Advanced levels.
Of course, I acquired the two certificates through Correspondence Courses or tuition. In 1972, that is, two years after the civil war, I travelled to the United States of America where I obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science/ History, Masters in the same discipline and same University of Texas, Arlington and PhD also in the same field from North Texas University, Denton in 1979. You can see that I got all my degrees through self effort which was made possible by self development".
An accomplished professional, Osuji was the publisher of The Opinion magazine and he is very proud of the numerous feats he achieved with that stable. He said; "For me not to jump issues, let me start by telling you that I returned to Nigeria at the beginning of the chain of events that eventually gave way for the civil war. Like most Igbo of my age at the time, I was an active participant in the battle fronts. First, between 1967 and 1968, I was in the mobilization and publicity team based in Port Harcourt. Within this period, I published two pamphlets namely, How to avoid air raids; and the Doom of Vandals.
From here I was made a Refugee camp director and later I was posted to Egbu, near Owerri as Chief Transport and Logistics Officer.
It was from this position that I saw Mr R.M. Burke to the Uli Airport and incidentally it was the day Ojukwu left for Ivory Coast and never returned till 1981".
He said; "Then to the magazine issue. You have seen that I was an active participant in the civil war. It goes that in 1981, I was the publisher of the Opinion Magazine and I regularly highlighted the Ojukwu heroics during the war and charged the Federal Government to negotiate his home return and it did happen exactly like that. My war experiences also formed my doctoral dissertation entitled; Trans-national organization as actors in the civil war and I cited Ojukwu eight times in the works".
The renowned Public Relations consultant gave an account how he bagged the National Award of Order Of the Niger, OON. He said; "I knew somebody who was very close to the late First Lady who I had also encountered in the past, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo.
I had just finished publishing one of my books and this friend of mine poked that he would assist me to get Mrs. Obasanjo for the official launch. I therefore obliged him a copy which he took to the former First Lady. Eventually the late Mrs. Obasanjo presented a copy of the book to her husband and informed him that the author is a blindman.
Obasanjo shouted and got across to me on phone and was pleased with me. He therefore forwarded my name for national recognition by lining me up for the OON award category.
I have also been appreciated with the FNIPR award". In order to assist others like him who cannot confront their challenges head on, the enterprising Osuji presented a paper entitled: MAKING EDUCATION ACCESSIBLE TO THE VISION IMPAIRED.
The paper was presented at the launch of a N50 million braille resource and computer centre on Thursday, December 16, 2010 at Imo Concorde Hotel, Owerri, Imo State, where he argued that; "it is a matter of regret and disenchantment to know that one of the short-comings of our educational system is non-recognition of the existence of the physically challenged persons, particularly the visually impaired in our society.
Right from both policy planning period through implementation, authorities have completely neglected the physically challenged persons, moreso, visually impaired children, pupils and students at the different level of our educational system".
Osuji has worked in several capacities including being a Senior Lecturer, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education Owerri; MAMSER director, in old Imo and Anmbra states; a renowned opinion analyst; guest contributor to both electronic and print media houses including VOA, BBC and FRCN.
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