Earlier, we brought you a story of how a young Nigerian man exited Professor Wole Soyinka from his seat on a flight, a story which was shared on Instagram by oil mogul, Tonye Patrick Cole.
Tonye Cole had written on his Instagram page;
“I met one of the greatest Nigerians walking the earth today and as with other times, he was genteel, witty, forthright and humble.
My smile gives me away as he permitted the picture whereas he would have preferred to get back to his newspapers. Then we boarded the flight and after assisting him with his bags, he took the window seat and promptly started reading again. A few minutes later this young man, baseball cap, t-shirt to show his muscled chest and tattooed biceps boards the plane and tells Prof he is on his seat (which he was).
Those of us including the cabin crew tried to reason with Bobo Fine to let the old man be but the chap refused. He insisted Prof should vacate his window seat, which the old man quietly did for his original aisle seat next to him. I couldn’t understand how we got to this point where we no longer have respect for elders, even if are so ignorant of the great global personalities in our midst.
Is it too much to ask that an elderly man be allowed to remain in a seat allotted to you in the same business class cabin and the same row? Na wa o!
This has got a lot of people reacting with divided opinions. One of those who has weighed in on the debate is Daddy Freeze. In an open letter to Tonye Cole, Freeze wondered what the respect Nigerians have so far given to their elders has done for us as a nation.
In his post, Freeze stressed that the young man had the courage to demand for his right but Soyinka has over the years failed to demand for the rights of Nigerians from its leaders.
Read his piece below
Dear Tonye Cole,
I probably would have politely done the same thing the young man did. Growing up, I was taught never to challenge my elders. In retrospect, I find it difficult to point to what this has earned us as a people? Are we more morally upright, safer, richer and better than nations where children are encouraged to stand up to elders? NO! Nigeria, with all our respect, has become the poverty capital of the world boasting of more people in extreme poverty than China and India combined, YES, COMBINED! (According to worldpoverty.io)
Some of our elders have sold our birthright, lied to us about salvation and taken foolish decisions that have impoverished us. What drew me to Prof. Soyinka in the first place was the fact that he never failed to challenge our leaders in power and religion, no matter their age. The young man on the flight DEMANDED his right; if you can’t demand your right on a flight, how can you demand it from the government or church?
The government needs to provide amenities for the people, while the Church should be accountable to the last kobo, we MUST demand this! Christ was less than 33 years old when he challenged the Pharisees, the authorities in religion of that time, who were in their 70s and 80s. ~FRZ
