Banwo Blames Parents, Elders for Youths’ Growing Cultural Disconnect

Public affairs commentator and lawyer, Dr. Ope Banwo, has said parents and elders must take responsibility for the growing cultural disconnect between younger Nigerians and traditional values, arguing that young people cannot be blamed for failing to observe traditions they were never properly taught.

Banwo made the observation while weighing in on the controversy surrounding a young woman who addressed businessman Tony Elumelu by his first name, “Tony,” an incident that has generated debate over respect, age and workplace culture.

Rather than blaming the young woman, Banwo said the larger problem lies with a generation of parents and elders that failed to transmit African cultural values to their children.

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He argued that many Nigerian parents deliberately raised their children in environments dominated by Western languages, entertainment and social media, only to become angry when those children grow up exhibiting Western cultural attitudes.

“We cannot outsource cultural education and then complain about the graduates,” Banwo argued, stressing that respect does not automatically reproduce itself from one generation to another.

According to him, parents and elders have a responsibility to teach children the values, boundaries and traditions expected of them, including appropriate ways of relating with older members of society.

He noted that many families have stopped teaching their children indigenous languages, while English has increasingly become the dominant language of communication at home.

Banwo said this cultural shift has created a generation that may struggle to understand traditional expectations concerning respect for elders, family obligations, community and forms of address.

He illustrated the contradiction by pointing to parents who raise children to embrace Western ideas of individualism, only to later expect them to automatically understand African communal responsibilities.

He questioned how young people could be expected to understand traditions that were never clearly explained or demonstrated to them.

According to Banwo, children do not simply develop their attitudes in isolation, noting that parents and elders play a critical role in shaping their understanding of acceptable behaviour.

“Children test boundaries. That is part of growing up. Parents and elders establish them,” he said, adding that discipline, correction, example and instruction are necessary for transmitting cultural values.

Banwo maintained that the responsibility does not end with demanding respect. Adults must also teach younger generations what respect means within the African context and establish clear boundaries where necessary.

He therefore urged elders to examine their own role in the cultural changes they now criticise, rather than placing the entire blame on younger Nigerians.

He said the controversy should serve as a reminder that cultural values survive only when they are deliberately passed from one generation to another.

For Banwo, the real question is not simply whether the young woman was wrong to address Elumelu as “Tony,” but whether Nigerian society has done enough to teach its younger generation the cultural principles it expects them to uphold.