Prof. Obiajulu Emejulu trained at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he obtained his Bachelors degree in English in 1984 and the University of Ibadan, where he obtained his Masters degreee in Language Arts in 1986 and Doctorate degree in Communication and Language Arts in  1992. He taught for ten years at the University of Ibadan before moving over to the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) after a brief stint at the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Aba, Abia State (1997-98). He was appointed a Professor of Communication and Language Arts in FUTO in 2010 and made a big impression there as the last Head of the General Studies Unit, who led it to become the Directorate of General Studies, with himself as the Acting Director, before a storied tenure as the Managing Director of the FUTO Consult Limited, which earned him a letter of commendation from the Governing Council of the University in 2011. He spent a momentuous year for his Sabbatical in the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, 2012-2013, during which he took six of the students away from the crowd of interns at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Library of the University to Awka-Etiti in Anambra State for three months internship in rural librarianship, with the active support of the Awka-Etiti Improvement Union and the Grassroots Literacy Project, his pet outreach initiative.

He returned to the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN) Aba in 2016 on leave of absence from FUTO and served as the Deputy Executive Director (June, 2016 – July, 2019) and Executive Director (August, 2019 to July, 2024), besides his teaching and academic supervision responsibilities. He introduced the National Certificate in Education (NCE) programme in 2020, taking the number of languages covered inNINLAN from the big three (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba) to eight, including Tiv, Efik-Ibibio-Annang, Urhobo, Kanuri and Fulfude. He achieved full accreditation from the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) for all the NCE programmes of the Institute and has brought the Institute to the cusp of commencing degree courses in seven programmes, in affiliation with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, following a successful resource verification by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

A past-president of LiPAN ( 2006-2008), he represented Africa on the Council and Affiliate Services Committee of the International Literacy Association (ILA) from 2004 to 2006 and has been a notable member of the International Development in Africa Committee (IDAC) of the Association since 2001.  As LiPAN President, he introduced the mid-term conference series in 2007 and led over two hundred members of the Association to the 5^th PALFA conference in Accra, Ghana in an orchestrated project themed, Literacy on Wheels Across West Africa. He won the Developing Country Grant of the ILA in 2006 and 2008 for literacy work in Nigeria. In 2004, he won the prestigious Constance McCullough Award of the ILA for a literacy project in the Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State. Based on his impressive contributions to the first ever Summer Writing Course in Cookeville, TN in 2008, he applied for and was appointed the 2009 Center Stage Laureate, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN as a visiting professor.

His areas of academic and research interests, expertise and professional practice include: receptive communication (reading and listening), expressive communication (writing and speech), literacy development, Igbo language development, public relations, information management and book publishing. He has over 55 publications in national and international peer-reviewed journals and has co-edited four books. He is currently promoting comic book writing in Nigerian languages. He was the lead consultant to the USAID-sponsored LEARN to Read language mapping survey of Sokoto, Bauchi and Adamawa States (2023) and delivered the prestigious Odenigbo lecture in Igbo language for the year 2023. He is married with children.