BN Hot Topic: Was this Man Right or Wrong in Refusing to Give Up his Window Seat for Professor Wole Soyinka?

A young man walks into the business class cabin of a flight, gets to his assigned seat, and meets a grey-haired octogenarian reading newspapers there. He tells old man to excuse him as that’s his seat. Old man is Professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laurette, celebrated playwright, poet, and essayist.

Cabin crew and some passengers plead with young man to let old man retain the seat. He insists on sitting on his assigned seat. Old man leaves, and all was well. Except not.

Rivers gubernatorial aspirant and co-founder of Sahara Group, Tonye Cole, who experienced it first hand, took to social media to share the events of the day.

“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?” he wrote on Instagram.

A lot of people agree with him. Young man should have forfeited his seat for the Prof; out of respect for his age and/or his achievements in life.

But some other people disagree. That was young man’s seat, they say. He probably paid extra to get that seat.

Others say, from Cole’s narration, it appears young man wasn’t disrespectful in insisting he wants his originally assigned seat, and that’s totally fine. They also hailed the Prof for respecting his decision.

Then there’s another discussion stemming from this: “Do elders use their status to subliminally bully people too?” one Instagram user asked.

So, BNers, what do you think?

Photo Credit: @tonyepatrickcole