Seth Micah Bonnie: Fare thee well Master Trainer

When my phone rang at 5.45am last Saturday there was nothing particularly unusual about the timing, again the name flashing on my LCD screen was familiar and most welcome. It was my former work mate and good buddy Gerry van Dyck. “We've lost a master trainer,” I believe I heard him say.

“What did you just say,” I screamed back. Hearing him was a bit difficult because I was in a moving vehicle heading towards the Central Region for a funeral and you can appreciate how challenging it is to communicate under such circumstances, given the kind of telephony services on offer in Ghana today.

Well, thankfully my colleague finally managed to communicate the sad news to me, “S.M. Bonnie is dead”, he said. “Did you say S.M.B of Africa,” that is how we affectionately called him. Yes he replied. My demeanour instantly changed and my reflections of the wonderful times shared with this great trainer begun. We shared more than the initials S.M, his standing for Seth Micah and mine, Sylvanus Martey.

I first met and worked with S.M Bonnie some 24 years ago as an intern at the Ghana Tourist Board, where he was a Deputy Director. I was a relatively young communications student and working with him made a great impression on me, his work ethics; ability to explain issues and gift of motivating people was phenomenal. Apparently I made enough of an impression on him too, resulting in his offering me employment three years later at the Marketing and Social Research Institute (MSRI), today known as Marketing and Social Research International. MSRI was established in August 1988 as part of the Advantage Group.

A fortnight ago, I had two phone calls from my former boss and friend, S.M.B. The first call was to request for the contact number of a mutual friend. This I provided immediately, after which we bantered for about five minutes. We arranged to have lunch sometime soon. The second call, which came about ten minutes later, requested that I provide professional assistance to somebody working on a project. Once again we chatted freely about other matters and reminded ourselves of the hanging lunch date. Such was his nature, he believed in networking, grooming people and revered seeing people succeed.

S.M. Bonnie was the main man behind M.S.R.I, with able support from 3 permanent office managers - Gerry van Dyck, Alfred Annum and my goodself. Others such as Yaw Attafuah, Akuamoah Boateng, Nana Amoako, Eric Hiamey, Monica Bleboo, Ankrah and Mathew Armah also played vital roles though not on a permanent basis at the early stages. Later on, however, some of those mentioned became permanent staff members. As ever there were several others also providing essential support services in the background.

I readily remember the late Sam Dunyo who was brought in from the Management, Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) and Emmanuel Nyarko, Betty Marvin and Mr. Asmah. This essentially was the M.S.R.I core team. And with S.M.B in charge of affairs even though we shared office space and facilities with our Lintas colleagues we had a different code. The man would be in the office by 6.30 am and leave work only after the days report was fully completed. Now remember, “Who born dog,” your boss is out there working his backside off and you think you could just laze about. Wrong! The atmosphere did not encourage any such attitude.

S.M.B managed to promote healthy competition between Gerry, Alfred and myself, a situation that brought out the best in us. Above all S.M.B would motivate us with cash bonuses and other perks. Having a session at our two favourite watering holes – Nyaniba junction Blue Gate and Labone Coffee shop were top on the bill. Period under review is 1989-1992.

I lived in Labone at the time, and M.S.R.I was located in nearby Nyaniba, so S.M.B was a familiar visitor to my household. Occasionally we would either sit on the veranda or under the mango tree and chat about many things. S.M.B considered me a safe pair of hands when it came to driving, so apart from working with him as a professional colleague, I had the added trusted responsibility of doing special duties and favours. Trekking to Adisadel in Cape-Coast to visit his son, going to St. Mary's Secondary School to visit his daughter, going to Morning Star School to occasionally pick his younger kids and on a number of occasions going round to check on his business interests were among the things that drew us closer.

The M.S.R.I team of managers had specific responsibilities amongst which was recruitment and training of field workers across the country. Gerry was responsible for Western and Central Region, Alfred for Eastern and Ashanti and I was responsible for the Upper East, Upper West, Northern and Volta Region. Greater Accra was a shared responsibility. On my first two visits to the North, I was with S.M.B - the man knew his way round like any of the natives - and this he explained was due to his work with the Ghana Tourist Board.

On all the occasions we made those visits, even when S.M.B. had given me my per diem for the trips, he would still go ahead and foot the entire bill – hotel and meals. When I called Monica Bleboo and Mawuko Afadzinu to inform them of the sad news, this same generous experience was one of the things they both recounted. Monica and Mawuko, like Kabral Blay-Amihere and others served as moderators for focus group discussions at various times on MSRI projects.

Life with its ups and downs threw a spanner in the works in March 1992. My almost perfect relationship with my boss was derailed in a manner that I am not prepared to recount in order to spare myself and others involved the discomfort of recollection.

All I can say is that S.M.B was passionate about his beliefs and values and so was I about mine. Against this backdrop, all attempted interventions undertaken variously by Mr. D.S. Quarcoopome and a few others to rectify the situation did not yield the desired results. We therefore parted ways amidst some bad blood.

I returned to the Advantage Group in February1995 when Advantage PR was set up. Advantage PR and M.S.R.I shared the same compound. Fortunately at this time, however, S.M.B and I had found a way to be reconciled. I left Advantage PR in 1999 to school abroad. Sometime in 2004, while in London, I got a call from S.M.B that he was in town so we arranged for me to pick him up from the Hendon tube station in North London. We went home, had a meal and a few drinks and chatted and laughed just like it was in earlier times. He met my wife and one-year-old daughter for the very first time, during which he doled out a fifty quid note to the little girl. He asked me to touch base when I got back to Ghana, which I did. On a number of occasions S.M.B generously bailed me out of difficulty without hesitation.

S.M.B. you still owe me lunch and a cold beer. My promise to you is to strive to be among the best in my chosen field. I have called the person you asked me to assist and will do what you taught me to do best, offer professional advise leading to desired outcomes. On December 18th this year, he would have turned sixty-six. He left behind a wife and six children. We share in the pain and sorrow of the entire family and also share in the celebration of his life and achievements. Over the years he has trained and positively touched thousands of lives both home and abroad. His good works shall not be in vain, we will continue from where you left off, and till we meet again: Fare thee well – Seth Micah Bonnie - the Master Trainer!