Finally the outgoing Chairman of United Bank for Africa, Mr Tony Elumelu, has met privately with the young trainee lady he corrected for addressing him by his first name.
A couple of days ago, a viral video of Tony Elumelu correcting a trainee’s “Good morning, Tony” sparked a nation wide debate on workplace first names in Nigeria. It sparked culture clash as a lot of people took sides.
Some netizens went further to dig out an old video of an interview Mr Elumelu had with a foreign broadcast station. The resurfaced 2022 video showed a Stanford Graduate School of Business student addressing billionaire Tony Elumelu casually by first name during an interview.
Those who supported the girls attitude noted that greeting the former bank boss by his first name is part of the banking environment work mannerism. So the young lady was only following what she was taught.
However those that supported Elumelu’s reactionary measure said, the African culture frowns at anyone calling his elders by their first name, as such, Africans should not allow our culture and tradition to be destroyed by Western culture.
After going back and forth, it was all smiles as Heirs Holding Chairman Tony Elumelu met with the young woman that called him ‘Tony’ at a UBA event.
This action however elicited a lot of commendations from Nigerians who praised Mr Elumelu for his strong mentorship.
