Business executive, Tonye Cole narrated an incident he witnessed on a plane between renowned Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka and a Nigerian man.
According to Tonye Cole, Mr Wole Soyinka got on the plane and took the window seat. When the young man assigned the seat boarded, he insisted Mr Soyinka leaves his seat. Others on the plane, including the crew members, begged the young man to let the Nobel Laureate have his seat. But the man insisted on sitting where he was assigned.
Mr Cole said this is an indication that our value system has been eroded and youths no longer have respect for elders. Media mogul, Mo Abudu and actress, Kate Henshaw comedian, Alibaba amongst others commented, agreeing with him that the young man’s behaviour was unacceptable.
But a number of web users insisted the young man was right to ask Mr Soyinka to vacate his seat and wrong of the cabin crew to try to guilt trip him into giving it up.
Read the encounter as narrated by Tonye Cole and some comments from web users, then tell which side you’re on.
“@professorwolesoyinka#celebrategreatness#relationshipsmatter 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!
Why did the Prof. take someone else’s seat? May be he did not look at his boarding pass well bcos every now and then we all mistake 7A ((Aisle) for 7B (Window). We don’t what happened. May be the Prof. did not even think anything of it and other people were just upset for him!!