Mazi Kanu Oji, nick-named Aggrey in early school days, was born on 23rd October 1927 to Mazi Philip Oji and Madam Otanahu Oji in Arochukwu, Abia State. He was the first surviving son and child of his parents. 

He grew up in Arochukwu, where he received his elementary education at Jubilee School, Arochukwu before he went to Hope Waddell Training Institution, Calabar for secondary education. He studied law at the University of London and the English-Council of Legal Education and held the LLB degree of the University of London. He later studied at the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration with the Ford Foundation Fellowship for a Master's degree program. He obtained the MBA degree with concentration in Accounting, Finance and Operations Research.

His civil service experience began soon after a brief teaching career at the Lagos City College, when he joined Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 1955. He later transferred to the Foreign Service in 1960, serving as Economic Officer in London, 1960-61, and as Commercial consul in New York, 1962-67. He left the public service in January 1968 in the USA and later took to banking in New York City with Bankers Trust Company, where before he resigned to return home he headed up the Africa sub-division of the International Banking Department. 

He returned to Nigeria in 1974 and went into private business. He soon discovered that the pre-independence efficiency and honest dedication to duty he knew in the Civil Service and the economy at large had virtually vanished during his long sojourn overseas. 

A martinet for general disciplines, punctuality and moral rectitude, who was once sued in 1967 for refusing to implement and participate in a kick-back, he was extremely restive after he returned about the Nigerian ethical decay and could not understand why he would not get instant service as a businessman from public functionaries without corrupt expectations of him by them. 

His campaign against ethical decay in Nigeria began almost as soon as he settled down on return from the USA. In his campaign effort, he authored and published two books on ethical revolution: The Nigerian Ethical Revolution, 1981-2000AD;  The Action Phase of Ethical Revolution, 1991-2000AD and co-authored another with his daughter, Corruption in Nigeria, the Fight and Movement to Cure the Malady.

He was awarded the honour of Member of the Order of the Niger, MON, by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2001 in recognition of his efforts in the war against corruption and indiscipline in government and public service. 

He was a devout Christian man and a ruling Elder of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria. He slept in the LORD on 11th June 2018 and lives on in Him. He is survived by many children, grandchildren and a great grandchild.