An old video clip of Nollywood actress Shaffy Bello discussing respect and how young people address elders has resurfaced online, days after UBA Group Chairman Tony Elumelu was filmed correcting a graduate trainee who called him “Tony.” In the clip, believed to be at least two years old, Bello explains her reaction when a child calls her by her first name.
Bello’s Stance on First-Name Address
“When a child calls me by my name, Shaffy, I pull them closer and tell them, ‘You haven’t earned the right, and you’ll never will.’ This is Africa. Igbos don’t do that they’ll call you ‘Aunty.’ Even children in the U.S. call me ‘Ma,’” she said in the resurfaced video.
She elaborated: “I pull them closer and say, 'You haven't earned the right to call me by name. I have a child as old as you are. Even if I don't have children, you haven't earned the right, and you will never earn that right at your age to call me by name.'”
Bello also lamented the decline of formal greetings, asking, “Whatever happened to ma'am? Good afternoon, ma'am, and there's something about this 'Hii'; I can't stand it.” She noted that even children she has met in the United States address her as “Ma’am.” She added, “This is Africa, after all,” while acknowledging that although most young people can be disrespectful, “there are rude adults out there as well.”
Elumelu’s Correction of a Trainee
The resurfaced clip comes amid a separate controversy involving Elumelu, who was caught on video correcting a graduate trainee at UBA’s Graduate Management Accelerated Programme ceremony after she greeted him with, “Good morning, Tony.” Elumelu told the trainee she would address him as “Mr Elumelu” or “TOE,” adding that he does not “subscribe to that kind of oyinbo lifestyle.”
The exchange split opinion online, with some Nigerians defending Elumelu’s stance on formality and others arguing that first-name address is increasingly normal in modern corporate culture.
Inconsistency Accusations and Debate
The debate deepened after an old 2022 clip resurfaced showing a Stanford Graduate School of Business student greeting Elumelu with “Hi Tony” during a fireside chat, to a far more relaxed reaction from him at the time. That contrast fuelled accusations of inconsistency, with a widely shared post questioning why the same address was tolerated in one setting and corrected in another.
Bello’s older comments, though unrelated to Elumelu directly, have been pulled back into the conversation as an example of the same generational stance on respect and formal address playing out across Nigerian public life. Neither Bello nor Elumelu has commented on the other’s remarks.
