Context Matters: Understanding the Tony Elumelu First-Name Debate – Afanyi  Dadzie writes

But in an African setting, where a young mentee who is also a stranger gets up and calls a man of Tony Elumelu's pedigree and age simply by his first name, outside a corporate environment where that has been established as the norm, I can understand why it may be considered off and contrary to protocol and etiquette.

Comparing the Nigerian and UK Videos My argument is that this whole conversation about using first names is ultimately about context, environment, philosophy, and familiarity.

Yesterday, a video went viral in which Nigerian billionaire and Group Chairman of UBA, Tony Elumelu, inadvertently drew the attention of a young female mentee at a public event to the fact that she could not simply refer to him by his first name.