A veteran thespian, Dele Odule, has chided some young Nigerians who show disrespect to their elders on social media.
In an interview with Sunday Scoop, the actor said, “It is a statement of fact that when one goes on social media these days, one sees a lot of young people disrespecting older ones. As long as someone is older than one is, it is in our culture that the younger one should respect the elders. One can express oneself online, but there should be a limit as to what one can say to an older person.”
Reflecting on an experience he had recently, the actor stated that someone accused him of visiting politicians and collecting money. He said, “I do not care what people have to say, as I am not one of them (celebs that collect money from politicians). I am just talking about my culture, where we do not disrespect elderly people.
“I am not saying (former President Muhammadu) Buhari did very well; neither am I saying that (President Bola) Tinubu is good. I am also not saying (Peter) Obi (presidential candidate of the Labour Party) and other people are bad. People should not just come on social media to abuse elderly people. You would not abuse your parents unprovoked, so why are you abusing other people’s parents?”
Odule also maintained that any adult that behaved like a child would be treated as one. “In Yoruba culture, when an adult does things that ought to be done by a child, they are asked why they are behaving like children. We are in an era of babies parenting babies.”
(Punch)