After a young executive trainee’s “Good morning, Tony” greeting to United Bank for Africa Group Chairman, Tony Elumelu, sparked a debate online, corporate workers and Nigerians have continued to revisit the place of first-name culture in Nigerian workplaces.
The debate followed a viral video from Thursday’s graduation ceremony of UBA’s Graduate Management Accelerated Programme, where the trainee addressed Elumelu as “Tony” while speaking during an interactive session.
Elumelu initially appeared to mishear her, asking, “Toyin? Toyin?” before she clarified that she had said, “Good morning, Tony.”
He then corrected her, telling her to address him as “Mr Elumelu” or “TOE”.
“Okay. No, you won’t call me Tony. You’ll call me Mr Elumelu or TOE. You won’t call me Tony, or Chairman. I don’t subscribe to that kind of… Oyinbo life, okay?”
