If not that, that episode was very instructive; I could have laughed
If I talk now, they will say I’m raining down on women
But do you honestly think that a young man of that lady’s age, status and income bracket would say Tony to Mr Elumelu or to any oga for that matter?
It’s these young females who seem to think that the world should circle their tight buttocks that are prone to such infamy.
What just played out there is a clear symptom of our society’s continued loss of its bearing
But tarry, Tony, sorry, Mr Elumelu was amongst the brilliant minds who pushed in the 90s for the first Name culture in the new generation banks
This was done so that team bonding would be better infused, engendering shared vision which fueled phenomenal growth
It was as a result of this that we saw Tony, Fola, Herbert, Aig, Tayo, Cecilia, and the rest of the superstar bankers come to our national consciousness
Till tomorrow, alumni and present staff of these huge Banks still call Tony by his first name and still call Fola, Fola. Fola who is in his 70s, and Tayo, Tayo, even though he has passed.
All you need do is sit down with some of these staffers and listen to them talk about their exploits with Tony or the day Herbert ran into them in an elevator or when they met with Fola or how Tayo was so nice, etc
But would that now make someone with no such relationship, no such proximity and no such affiliation stand up in a crowded room and say, Tony?
It was fitting that Mr Elumelu stopped her short and even went further to give her possible options with which she could address him formally and respectfully
You see the challenge with these things is the dearth of values and the confusion embedded in our society today, and our women suffer more from this than we, the men
With the loose morals that now pervade as a result of our very elderly men crossing boundaries and empowering these young females, the ‘fear’ of an elder is no longer there
Apart from the moral angle, the openness of our so-called modern society also brings pressure to bear on common sense
Even if the man himself says – call me Tony, a well-bred young person imbued with respect will still say, Mr Tony or Sir
I am very happy that the clip is going viral all over social media, and the comment section seems to be in support of Mr Elumelu; this, in my mind, shows that just maybe we would learn from this episode
We have lost our youths as they no longer have moral values to guide them as they transition into adulthood, and this is why vile things like this happen
My children call me Joe, and that is cos they are my children and I brought them up that way
But they would not dare call an adult his first name. They won’t try it
Funny enough, my driver is Tony, and I see them say-Mr Tony, the day I hear any of them say Tony, I will slap the Tony out of their mouth
How do you even stand up in a crowd and stare at a man of that stature and say, Tony…..
Thankfully, she accepted the correction even though she didn’t apologise, which shows that one day, she would go to Aso Rock and say – Bola or go to Abeokuta and say Segun and I trust those ones; she will definitely have a story to tell when she gets back home
Such insolence
Na wa
Duke of Shomolu
Last modified: August 21, 2026
