Veteran playwright Dele Odule has criticized some young Nigerians who show disrespect for their elders on social media.
In an interview with The Sunday Scoop, the actor said, “It’s a statement of the fact that when one goes to social media these days, one sees a lot of young people disrespecting their elders. As long as someone is older than one, in our culture they should respect the older ones. It is not a crime that One should express oneself online, but there should be a limit to what one can say to Elders”
Reflecting on a recent experience he had, the actor mentioned that someone accused him of visiting politicians and collecting money. He said, “I don’t care what people say, I’m not one of them (celebrities who collect money from politicians). I’m just talking about my culture, where we don’t respect the elderly.
I am not saying that (former President Muhammadu) Buhari did well; Nor am I saying that (President Bola) Tinubu is good. Nor am I saying (Peter) Obi (Labour presidential candidate) and that other people are bad. People should not just come on social media to abuse the elderly. You wouldn’t abuse your own parents without provocation, so why would you abuse other people’s parents? ”
Odule also maintained that any adult acting like a child would be treated as one. “In Yoruba culture, when an adult does things a child should do, they ask why they are behaving like children. We are in the era of child parenting.”
