Imoro Saani is of Northern Ghana extraction. He took advantage of Ghana’s almost-free education system in the northern parts of Ghana in the immediate post-colonial era to become one of the best corporate lawyers Ghana could boast of at the time.
In fact, the records show that hiring Mr. Saani for a commercial litigation at the time was a victory in itself, as he had a 100% win rate in court.
As a consequence, he became very rich and powerful in society.
Mr Saani had love for all manner of pets – including a snake he acquired on one of his many foreign travels.
But, as Mr Saani’s stature soared in society, rumour soared in equal measure about the source of his success.
It wasn’t a common sight to see many successful people of Mr Imoro’s extraction, especially during the early post-colonial days becoming that successful and wealthy hence in the minds of many, there must be something that made him so successful. A deity? Perhaps “money medicine”.
Therefore, as he became more and more successful, career and wealth wise, whispers about him doing so through some mysterious deity he allegedly kept grew louder.
On this particular day, Mr Imoro’s snake had slithered its way out of its holding area and not even a frantic search for the pet that morning by Mr Saani and his children could lead them to find the whereabouts of the beautiful pet.
Snakes are by their nature creatures that enjoy warmth; therefore, when Mr Saani’s pet snake slid out of its cage, it found solace in the engine compartment of his car which was parked in his garage.
Unknown to his household, the pet snake had coiled around a belt in the engine of the car, a place it found more enjoyable than its artificial home created for it by the Saani family.
On that fateful morning as the barrister drove to work, he noticed something quite unusual with the engine of his car; but, he managed to drive it to work.
By the time he arrived at his office’s parking lot, the car engine had almost ceased so he summoned his mechanic who – upon opening the vehicle bonnet – found the pet snake coiled around a compartment in the engine.
The pet, even though found, had died.
Mr Saani, who had so much love for, and emotional attachment to, his pets including this snake that had died, was almost in tears for losing his pet.
But, his tears only reinforced one thing – the people’s perception of his ‘mysterious powers’ that had combined to make him so successful and powerful.
The whispers grew louder and louder and, for many years, he has had to live with the pain of losing a pet snake and a wicked public perception of him being a deity worshiper or a money ritualist.
Mr Saani’s story is that of a wicked coincidence that he could hardly ever explain to anyone.
The Saani story of how coincidence could meet public perception at a time of human or organizational life can be likened to the Multimedia story of recent days.
The Multimedia Group is, arguably, Ghana’s most successful private media organization; the kind of success that may have remained a mystery to many people – especially when many others have ventured and failed in this business model.
The Multimedia story raises a lot of questions that need responding to:
Has the Group seen some high-profile resignations in recent times? Yes!
Do these resignations come at a time to accentuate public perception of a crisis? Yes!
But, are these resignations mere pieces of coincidence that have combined to feed into a public perception of raging crisis? Yes!
Like Mr Saani, how does the group explain this to the public, especially the many bloggers and owners of YouTube accounts who are more than willing to jump on these stories for traffic?
I doubt if the business can, or will be willing to, spend its energy fighting perceptions that have unfortunately been reinforced by some inevitable happenings.
One thing is, however, certain: the Multimedia Group, like the giant that this brand is, can only grow bigger by these happenings.
Like Mr Imoro Saani, the Multimedia Group has found its pet snake in the recent resignations but the resignations have only combined to highlight a non-existing crisis. Nonetheless, the mirage of a crisis will deflate, burst like a bubble – with time!
For the avoidance of doubt, if anyone thought that these happenings have done any serious damage to this giant team; I want to remind them of this lesson: Sometimes, a Zlatan Ibrahimović must exit for a Lionel Messi to be given to the world!
Watch this space.
SOURCEJoshua Tigo | Email: joshua.tigo@myjoyonline.com
