Opinion
Prince Emeka Obasi: Remembering media colossus at 61
Prince Emeka Obasi, public intellectual, publisher, erudite scholar, political philosopher, and the man, who saw tomorrow, would have clocked 61 today had the cold hand of death not snatched him away three years ago.
Obasi was by all accounts a phenomenon, a winner, who never saw any obstacles or mountains on his way of achieving anything he so desired. He courted both the old and young, the business elites as much as he courted political intelligentsia and the ordinary folks. He saw values in relationships and merit in hard work. Tribe and tongue had no place in his value system as he treated everyone equally.
He was the youngest publisher in the history of the Nigerian media as he began publishing Hallmark newspaper before he was 30 years of age. Blessed with a profundity of ideas, he initiated the Awolowo Foundation, then Zik Prize, which had brought big personalities from around the world, turning the Prize into the most significant in the country after the Nigerian National Merit Awards.
His column in the Hallmark newspaper: The Presidency, was noted for its erudition, enlightened knowledge of Nigerian politics and politicians, it’s incisive commentary on Nigerian life, and the brilliance and clinical accuracy with which it predicted future events with the precision of a Swiss watch.
Obasi was honey that attracted the big names in the military, politics, and the private sector to him, all of them delighted and enthralled by the wealth of his knowledge and brilliance. Little wonder, he was a friend to all. He worshipped knowledge like the devotees of the Cargos cult mentioned in Ayi Kwei Armah’s ‘ Fragments ‘.
He was a stickler for discipline and good conduct and he encouraged whoever had the good fortune to encounter him. He had the most intimidating library, housing rare books from literature to political science, philosophy to linguistics, and biographies.
His passing, no doubt, is a significant loss to the intellectual class, and the depleting class of true Nigerian patriots. He loved the country as much as he loved his Igbo tribe in equal measure.
As Prince marks his 61 posthumous birthday, it’s yet another significant reminder that great souls never die; they live in our hearts, minds, and memories. He was part of the pantheons of great Nigerians, who straddled, and strutted our spaces, then left abruptly, leaving traces and flashes of brilliance and legacies of great works that immortalized their names.
