Jimanze, the quintessential polemicist, takes a final bow, By Ikechukwu Amaechi
“A brilliant polemicist with an independent critical mind, Jimanze embodied all the virtues of a thinker – intellectual responsibility and courage, imaginativeness, perseverance, open-mindedness, empathy, integrity, confidence in reason, love of truth, curiosity and autonomy.
“He loved debates, no matter how controversial. He had very strong opinions, which he was never afraid to espouse, yet he was intellectually humble. His ideas were as eclectic as his interests which spanned the fields of economics, sociology, history and strategy.
“Jimanze knew what he set out to do. He was a man of ideas, comfortable in the non-conformist garb. He loved being avant-garde in his ideas – new, modern, experimental, unconventional and innovative.
“In a September 2017 interview with the Daily Sun where he wrote a popular and well-received column, The Turf Game, he talked about his mission as a writer. “I consider myself a lay historian. The job of the historian is to bring out that which is hidden into the open and which is already in the open into perspective. And I believe that history is one of the primary sciences. The primary sciences are those sciences that characterise who man and, therefore, the society is. And if you get this right, you are on the path of personal, group and national development. It is a place I think I have comparative advantage.
“The prolific author has gone the way of all flesh. He did his utmost best while he was on this side of the divide to expand the frontiers of knowledge. It is a sad commentary on the nation’s pathological contempt for scholarship that he is not being celebrated as a man who contributed so much to the country should.
You may disagree with some of his ideas, you can’t but admire the sharpness of his mind, tenacity of purpose, originality of thought and audacity.
“Yesterday, Jimanze, the Great Lion roared loudly. He was an intellectual pugilist, who never retreated from the ring no matter how tough and intense the cerebral bout.
“Today, a precious one from us has gone, a voice we loved is stilled. Shalom, Jimanze.”
Ikechukwu Amaechi is the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of TheNitche online news medium
