The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has called on United Bank for Africa (UBA) authorities to provide psychological support to the embattled young trainee following public backlash for addressing the bank’s chairman, Tony Elumelu, by his first name.
Sowore said the backlash against the woman, who participated in UBA’s Graduate Management Accelerated Programme, had gone beyond a simple debate over workplace etiquette.
In a post made on his social media handles on Saturday, Sowore disclosed that a senior management official of UBA Group had contacted him over his concerns about the treatment of the trainee.
Recall that the controversy erupted after a video showing an interaction between Elumelu and the trainee went viral. In the footage, the woman greeted the billionaire businessman as “Tony”, prompting him to correct her before she subsequently addressed him as “Mr Elumelu”.
Elumelu later explained that he did not subscribe to what he described as “oyinbo life”.
However, Sowore rejected the description of the incident as a clash between African and Western cultures, arguing that it was more reflective of Nigeria’s entrenched class structure.
“I made it clear that, in my view, this was not a ‘culture clash’; it was a class war, a reflection of the deeply entrenched hierarchy and class consciousness that too often determines who is considered entitled to demand deference and who is expected to provide it,” he said.
Sowore questioned whether the same level of outrage would have followed if Elumelu’s children addressed a family driver or gateman by their first name.
He argued that the reaction would likely be different because the controversy was ultimately tied to status, wealth and power rather than simply African cultural values.
“That tells you immediately that this argument is not really about ‘African culture’ or respect. It is about class, status, wealth and power,” he said.
Sowore, however, said his primary concern was the welfare of the trainee, given the scale of the criticism and ridicule directed at her since the video emerged.
He urged UBA to immediately provide her with appropriate psychosocial support, insisting that a young employee should not be left to deal alone with the consequences of becoming the focus of a nationwide controversy.
“Whatever anyone thinks about how she addressed Tony Elumelu, no young employee or trainee should be left alone to absorb the psychological consequences of suddenly becoming the target of a massive public controversy,” Sowore said.
He added that the trainee should not be “sacrificed on the altar of corporate hierarchy or social-media outrage”, stressing that her dignity, welfare and mental well-being should take precedence.
Meanwhile, a communications strategist Azuka Onwuka, also offered another explanation for the incident, suggesting that the trainee may have been caught between conflicting instructions during her orientation at UBA.
Onwuka said the incident was not necessarily connected to “wokeness”, the Gen Z culture or an inability to understand workplace etiquette.
According to him, the trainee may have been following a first-name policy communicated to her during her orientation as a graduate trainee.
He said she may have addressed Elumelu as “Tony” in an attempt to comply with the policy, only to find herself in an awkward situation when the chairman corrected her.
“This young lady is merely a victim of two conflicting instructions,” Onwuka said.
He expressed concern that the trainee could face consequences within the bank if supervisors interpreted the viral incident as damaging to UBA’s reputation.
Onwuka, however, urged the bank to protect rather than punish her, arguing that successfully passing the UBA recruitment process indicated that she was a capable young graduate who deserved understanding.