By Ayo Kehinde
The story involving Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and a young Nigeria who demanded for his seat in a flight has generated such reactions on Twitter and Facebook since the story broke on Monday after a Nigerian businessman, Tonye Cole, shared his flight experience about the young man whom he felt ‘disrespected’ Mr Soyinka by asking for him (Soyinka) to leave his allotted seat which the professor sat on.
The younger man, according to Cole, refused to heed pleas from the cabin crew and him, Cole, and Soyinka had to leave the seat to return to his own seat, much to Mr Cole’s disgust.
After the story went viral with back and forth arguments for and against the act, the young man posted his own side of the event on his twitter page, reproduced below. According to the young man who gave his name as Tosin Odunfa, he insisted on having his seat by the window because he is on Autuism spectrum and “need the view from the window to keep me from getting sick on the plane”. He sounded apologetic and said he exchanged words and address with Soyinka. To set the records straight, Soyinka, who said he never spoke a word with the young man and exchanged no address, decided to wade in and clear up some misconception and unnecessary arguments still trailing the story on social media. His reaction is also reproduced below:
