Mike Eghan – An appreciation
Mike Eghan, who has just passed (at the age of 89), was one of those individuals whom one never forgets once an acquaintanceship has been struck with them.
He was bonhomie personified:
His smile was so ready that one might easily regard it as a permanent fixture on his face. But that did not mean that he was a soft take. Those who came across him at a deeper level – either in a business venture or as a media practitioner, would find in him, a guy who was well-armed with his background facts, and could quickly marshal them to help buttress whatever case he happened to be making at the time.
Persuasive but not overbearing, he made friends easily, which meant that either at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation or at the BBC, he obtained interviews which were denied to his colleagues. Not surprisingly, his success was sometimes resented, with the result that his career path never took an altogether smooth line as far as reaching the top was concerned. Fortunately for him, he was engaged in an industry in which talent cannot be hidden for long. Thus, his sound programme, Music With An African Beat, became a weekly rendezvous with listeners to the BBC African Service. Back home, after working abroad for some time, he created an interview programme on TV that could often set the agendas for the rest of the media.
I remember that when Jerry Rawlings first entered the political scene in Ghana, very little was known about him. Mike, armed with his unerring professional eye, realised that this was a major scoop and he invited me to the studio to relate as much of my information about the man and his potential policies as possible to the viewers of his TV show.
I was in London when I heard that his daughter had passed there. Almost the whole of the Eghan family came to London to give the young lady a tremendous send-off. My former colleague at the GBC, Ben Eghan Junior, whose velvety voice endeared him to hordes of listeners who tuned in to his brilliant commentating of live football matches, accompanied his younger brother to the sad funeral of the latter’s daughter. Ben was peeved when I stole Mike away one evening and took him to see a jazz performance by Liohel Hampton and his band. I coyly apologised to Ben, explaining that jazz wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea!
As I have hinted above, Mike Eghan was a very astute businessman. At a time in the 1970s and 80s when Ghana was short of almost everything that had to be imported, Mike became the manager of a very fashionable hotel/restaurant called Sunrise Hotel. With his friendly personality, he succeeded in getting regular supplies of beer, soft drinks and – sausages. Breakfast, lunch and dinner times were thus very busy for the Sunrise, as members of Accra’s “smart set” were to be found there, entertaining one another without paying prices that had gone through the roof. Mike and his business partner, the late Sandy Anderson, are thus owed a great debt by many of us, whose sanity they saved, as we went from bar to bar, vainly looking for our usual “poison” but left empty-handed!
Or rather, empty-bladdered!
Rest in peace, dear Mike. I am sure you will be met, where you are going, with a hearty rendition of the opening song to your TV Shows: “Well….well…..welcome to the sho-o-o-o-o-w!”
BY CAMERON DUODU
